Here’s What’s Going to Happen if President Biden Issues Sweeping Pardons to Shield His Allies From Trump

President Joe Biden is considering issuing a swath of sweeping preemptive pardons for individuals who could be targeted by President-elect Donald Trump after he takes office next year. This comes amid Democratic fearmongering about the incoming administration possibly weaponizing the justice system against its opponents.

Of course, discerning folks can easily see that Democrats are just afraid that Trump will do to them what they did to him when they had control of the executive branch. Perhaps they should be. But this move on Biden’s part will inevitably have horrendous long-term consequences in the future, emboldening corrupt government officals to abuse their positions.

The New York Times reported that Biden is weighing whether to issue sweeping pardons for officials and allies who the White House fears could be unjustly targeted by President-elect Donald Trump’s administration.

Those who might receive pardons include prominent figures like Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-CA).

Several legal experts told Politico that if Biden uses broad pardon powers, it could set a precedent that Trump and future presidents might use to pardon is own allies.

During the 2024 campaign, Trump pledged to harness the pardon power even more aggressively. Most notably, he promised to pardon many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021.

Almost immediately after the Hunter Biden pardon was announced, Trump hinted that he may cite it as justification for granting broad clemency to Jan. 6 defendants.

“Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages?” he asked on social media, describing the rioters in terms rooted in his efforts to downplay the violence they wrought against police that day.

Joe Biden deviated from past practices by invoking fairness — rather than acceptance of responsibility — as the putative criteria for pardoning his son, said Samuel Morison, an attorney who worked in the Office of the Pardon Attorney for 13 years. Trump is now freer to invoke that same reasoning to grant broad protection to his own allies.

“I do think this gives Trump greater leeway to exercise the pardon power in ways that he might otherwise have hesitated, because it gives Trump more political cover to do what he wants,” Morison said. “How can you say that the president can’t grant pardons to correct something that he believes is an injustice? Biden just did it.”

This is the problem with Biden choosing to use his position to shield his allies – especially those who sought to weaponize the government against their most feared political opponents. If he takes this course of action, it will create a dangerous feedback loop in which future administration feel justified in doing the same.

There can be no doubt that Trump would use it as a precedent to pardon his closest allies that could be targeted for prosecution for simply being his ally. In his case, it might make sense given how the government has been leveraged as a cudgel against the president-elect and many of his supporters.

But it won’t stop there.

Future administrations would almost certainly wield the pardon pen to protect corrupt officials within and outside of government. This is the inevitable outcome of partisan influence in the justice system. When officials are willing to weaponize the government against political opponents, it creates more corruption. If government officials know that they will likely be pardoned despite committing crimes, why would they refrain from committing them in the first place?

At the end of the day, this will only harm the American public, not just political parties. It will only cultivate a more corrupt environment in the federal government, which already has plenty of corruption in the system. Do we really need more?