Joe Biden in the final minutes of his presidency on Monday issued pardons to five more members of his family—his brother James and wife Sarah, his younger sister Valerie Biden Owens and husband John T. Owens, and his brother Francis Biden—after he says they were “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats” motivated by a desire to hurt him.
Key Facts
The move comes after Biden controversially pardoned his son Hunter—who was previously charged with tax and gun crimes—and gave preemptive pardons to Trump foes like Dr. Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley and members of the House Jan. 6 committee.
Other than his son Hunter, Biden’s family members haven’t faced charges.
Biden said in a statement the preemptive pardons are not an admission that his family members engaged in any wrongdoing, nor that they’re guilty of any crimes.
He called out “baseless and politically motivated investigations” meant to target political rivals and their families as motivation for the pardons, and said that even being investigated for a crime they’ll be cleared of “can irreparably damage their reputations and finances.”
President Donald Trump, who was sworn in roughly 20 minutes after the pardons were announced, has suggested he could use federal agencies to prosecute his political rivals if he was reelected, telling Spanish-language television network Univision “it could certainly happen” and that his indictments, which he has also claimed were politically motivated, “released the genie out of the box.”
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