A bit more about those preemptive pardons Biden issued
At the end of Trump’s first term, the left worried that Trump would issue preemptive pardons for his own family:
Democrats and their MSM media mouthpieces had strong opinions on 'preemptive pardons' and Presidents pardoning their family members in 2020….in 2024 their strong opinions have completely changed…I know, you're shocked. LOL pic.twitter.com/YvpxtjnI0p
— Clyp Keeper (@DGrayTexas45) December 9, 2024
And then, guess what? Trump never did it. And then the new administration went after both Trump and his family’s assets, as well as his associates, with lawfare. What’s more, Trump never went after Hillary for her emails, and he could have done so.
And now? Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for his family.
Those pardons accomplish at least three things. First and foremost, they protect the Biden family from federal prosecution for their corruption. Secondly, they’re a big FU to Trump and the right and to everyone who isn’t firmly in the Biden camp. But the third thing they accomplish is more subtle, and is intended strictly for the left. They allow the left to claim that Trump would have used lawfare on all these innocent people but for the pardons.
The way Joe tried to frame the situation – and the way people with TDS see it – is that the pardons were necessary because Trump, the “convicted felon” who somehow illegitimately once again occupies the White House, would have unfairly persecuted Biden and company if Joe hadn’t finessed Trump with the pardons that took away that power.
Here’s Jonathan Turley on the Biden family pardons:
The pardoning of James Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John Owens and Francis Biden brought an inescapable clarity to the corruption of what is known in Washington as Biden Inc.
I have written about the Biden family’s corruption for decades. Influence-peddling has always been the favorite form of corruption in Washington, but this city has never seen the likes of the Biden family. Millions of dollars were secured from foreign sources and distributed to various Biden family members.
Biden repeatedly lied about the influence peddling. …
Once he was forced out of the presidential race, Biden was freed up to sign a pardon for any and all crimes committed over a ten-year period by his son. He insisted that he really hadn’t been lying. He claimed that no ordinary person would have been tried for his son’s crimes — a manifestly untrue statement. He also emphasized that he had to take this step as a father of a son who was a hopeless addict and has now been clean for years.
However, the latest family pardon shatters even that rationalization. These Bidens are not even charged with any crimes, but Biden wanted to give them cover from any possible prosecution for anything. It was the ultimate sign of contempt for the intelligence of the American public and the integrity of his office.
Biden has long exercised situational ethics and, with his powers coming to an end, the situation demanded that he cash out before his credit ended. In granting these pardons, Biden was seeking to protect not just his family but also himself. …
Biden sealed his legacy with a finality that escapes most presidents. While his diminished mental capacity will remain an issue for historians, his longstanding lack of ethics was conclusively established with these pardons. It was Biden’s final act of corruption.
Let’s hope so.
This will come back around on them, and it is imperative that Biden’s pardons be thrown in their face when they howl like mad.
The thing is, only the right cares about minor details like corruption and nepotism.
To the left, the only thing that matters is power. How they get it and how they wield it is of no importance.
That’s why they can, with a straight face, say in one sentence that pre-emptive pardons prove corruption and in the next sentence say that the pre-emptive pardon they accepted was to defend against corruption…and still get re-elected over and over again.
I am truly outraged by Biden’s pardon of his family. But who cares? I’ve been outraged by a lot of things Biden has done, and before by Obama. No one cares about my outrage except my wife, who tells me it is bad for my blood pressure. So I’ll just tell Neo’s readers about my outrage and let it go.
I’m hoping there will be litigation over what are grants of retroactive immunity, not pardons at all. I doubt there is a case that the President is constitutionally empowered to grant personal immunities of any sort.
Democrat politicians and their voters are ignorant, stupid, or just plain evil, and have been so since 1865.
F (3:20 pm) said: “No one cares about my outrage except my wife, who tells me it is bad for my blood pressure.”
Same exact problem here, except it’s mitigated now because I’m quite numb to it all.
It will take years for the stench of the Biden Regime to dissipate.
Get them to testify about all the things they have done. They may not be prosecuted for what they have done, but they may be prosecuted for perjury or for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions. As they have been pardoned, they may not plead the Fifth Amendment. They have been pardoned, so anything they say cannot incriminate them–if they do not perjure themselves in testimony.
By getting them to admit in court to what they have done, their record in history will be besmirched forever. In addition, they will be humiliated by having to admit in court about what crimes they have committed–even though they may not be prosecuted for those crimes.
Like they say, “you may beat the rap but you won’t beat the ride.” Since they have beat the rap, let’s give them the ride. 🙂
Dax-
The stench of Biden rot will linger with the America-haters.
“It will take years for the stench of the Biden Regime to dissipate.” – Dax
“This will come back around on them…” – PwFD
I’m reminded of the ancient & present truth, “Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and a stone will come back on the one who starts it rolling.” – Proverbs 26:27
I am confident, even the shortest of historical memories will retain the “stench” (excellent apt word btw) of the pardons if nothing else. The very idea of “two-tiered justice” grates in the low-SES urban communities & this may cost the Ds some poverty-level votes… “HIS son! HIS brother! What about OUR sons & brothers?!!?”
The pardons are not just a raised middle finger to the Trump Administration & MAGA crowd. They make things “complicated” for the Ds…perhaps for a good while.
Inflation may be forgotten in the next upswing. There may actually be a workable truce between Russia & Ukraine. Israel might in fact enshrine its own security arrangements into the 3rd & 4th generation from now. But the stench of Biden’s gross self-interested injustice will cling to the Ds. It’s up to us to make sure of that too.
So how does the Trump administration mobilize to investigate the Bidens, the J6 Committee, and Fauci, for a start.
Individuals may be pardoned, but not possible crimes.
John Guilfoyle: From your lips to God’s ears.
Do Presidential pardons cover tax evasion?Follow the money through Biden Inc.
Becket: re: tax evasion
That seems only a meaningful crime if a Republican or Trump supporter is involved.
Sailorcurt wrote of the left:
“they can, with a straight face, say in one sentence that pre-emptive pardons prove corruption and in the next sentence say that the pre-emptive pardon they accepted was to defend against corruption…and still get re-elected over and over again.”
Yes. I sigh … and agree.
It all makes me yearn for some hope, some guarantee that most conservatives are assiduously raising their children with a strong love of country, and a solid foundation of American history.
@ sdferr > “Michael Anton sworn in:”
Policy planning at State might be more rational now.
I haven’t read anything by Anton lately, but I very much enjoyed his commentary in the past.
Very erudite and entertaining, an unusual combination.
“Rational” meaning “promoting the interests of the United States as a whole and not the often-perverse ideology of the Deep State at the Dept. of State”
I think I found this at Instapundit yesterday (there was a LOOOONG list of posts there!) Food for thought.
https://x.com/Lancegooden/status/1881409108513059125
Lance Gooden @Lancegooden
John Guilfoyle,
Thanks for your reply.
Neither I nor DuckDuckGo understand “‘This will come back around on them…’ – PwFD.” Port Washington Fire Department? 🙂 Thanks.
Dax,
John was referencing Praising With Faint Damns (PwFD) comment in this post thread on January 21, 2025 at 1:28 pm.
The wonder is not that “Biden” pardoned so many people, but that he pardoned so few.
Ed Driscoll put together a long post, citing some recent articles, that makes a devastating but compelling proposal about why none of the obviously incompetent people in the Biden Administration were ever fired.
https://instapundit.com/697630/
“THE REAL BIDEN SCANDAL: Running for a Second Term.”
The whole thing is worth reading, as are the source articles, but this is the bottom line, from Blehar’s post at NR:
Because they would spill the beans — and (Blehar implies but doesn’t say) would have enough chops as Democrats to be listened to.
I think he might be overly optimistic about that, since the Regime Media clearly knew about Biden’s incapacity, and by extension about the junta behind him, but maybe they couldn’t cover it up completely if the fired official got loud enough.
We all know about the trouble that disgruntled employees can cause.
Anyway, RTWT if you want to see how he connects the dots.
Not surprisingly, several commenters at Insty note that the real scandal was running Biden for the first time.
Official Seal of the Democrat Party
(h/t commenter at Turley’s website)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F5h9iQ3aEAAm1Qk?format=jpg&name=small
Please note, the announced candidates for the Democratic nomination in 2015 included three men who had founded successful businesses, two men who had worked as business executives and public executives, and a state governor with a history of appealing to red state electorates. That’s five men who had a lot of assets (Michael Bloomberg fitting in under two categories). The Democratic electorate took a glance at Michael Bloomberg and ignored the rest. Who they did not ignore was (1) a corporate lawyer turned prosecutor turned legislator who had a known history of abusing subordinates, (2) a walking resume who had performed indifferently as the mayor of a small city, (3) a law professor turned legislator with a history of affirmative action fraud decisive to her career, (4) a Trotskyist n’er-do-well who in middle age had found his niche in municipal politics, and (5) the demented head of the Biden crime family. Of these five, they selected the worst option. It isn’t merely they accepted the plate of manure put in front of them. The plate of manure is what they wanted.
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Keep in mind, these clowns do not have an analogue on the other side of the divide. IMO, Trump has never been the optimal selection among alternatives, but there’s no question he has important talents and virtues that others lack. (The question has always been do they outweigh his defects).
Dax-
“The stench of Biden rot will linger with the America-haters.”
Nay, I’m afraid they will enjoy its pungent aroma and marvel at its multi-orficed source.
“Get them to testify about all the things they have done. They may not be prosecuted for what they have done, but they may be prosecuted for perjury or for contempt of court for refusing to answer questions. ”
They will just embrace the power of “I don’t recall”.
That’s up toward the top of the democrat playbook.
It’s always projection with Marxists saying opponents will do what they are doing.
@Rufus
>John was referencing Praising With Faint Damns (PwFD)
Thank you!
Persecuting rather than prosecuting Biden’s pardonees:
If they pull the “I don’t recall” scam enough and the investingating lawyers/questioners ask the right questions the right way, it will impossible for the public not to agree with “they can’t not recall THAT!!”
This will require investigations that discover documents or other forms of evidence that are essentially independent of the pardonees’ control or generation. Probably things like bank statements, travel records, exhorbitant or excess purchases with no legitimate source of funding, etc. Relying on testimony from former friends or business associates may not be adequate by itself, but might be helpful in supplying context or connections not obvious without that help.
The real lawyers here can probably amplify on the merits and limits of the above.
Bob Dole’s ghost is wandering the land, still asking “Where’s the outrage?” Aside from Ford’s very exceptional Nixon pardon, have preemptive presidential pardons been issued in the past? It doesn’t appear to be so. Usually the courts have done their work first. Past “abuses” of the pardoning power have been nothing compared to what Biden did.
I don’t think the argument that the pardons are illegitimate because Biden didn’t know who he was pardoning will stand up. In his lucid moments he obviously did intend to pardon Hunter and other members of his family. He also must have intended to pardon the Jan 6th committee members (or he didn’t object to doing so when it was explained to him). Beyond that, the Biden years proved that we have a plural executive or palace rule. We choose our emperor, but what comes out of the palace is the will of the emperor, whether it’s really what the emperor wanted or not.
Rush called him “Joey Plugs” for good reason.
Aside from Ford’s very exceptional Nixon pardon,
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Ford’s commentary on it – that he had work to do and was continually distracted by Nixon matters – was an indicator that Ford was a career legislator who had not learned how to delegate authority. (Ron Nessen reported later that Ford in September 1974 was trying to get along without a chief of staff, a course of action he had to abandon). It’s difficult to understand why investigatory agencies and the U.S. Attorney were arranging for any paperwork on Nixon to be landing on the President’s desk.
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If federal police and prosecutors were going to build a case against Nixon it’s a reasonable wager they’d have attempted some variant of what is called ‘hindering prosecution’ and ‘official misconduct’ in New York law. There were enough intermediaries between Nixon and Gordon Liddy’s crew that it would have been challenging to nail him for conspiracy to engage in burglary or unlawful surveillance. John Dean told an interviewer for Time in 1973 that it was probably true that Nixon knew nothing of the Watergate break-in in advance. Defenders of Nixon since have contended that surviving evidence indicates that Nixon could hardly keep the dramatis personae straight and was in conversation confounding this person with that person.