A day that began with the outgoing president\u2019s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president\u2019s pardon of supporters who violently stormed the US Capitol four years ago.
The clemency grants by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump \u2014 one benefiting uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies \u2014 are vastly different in scope, impact and their meaning for the rule of law.
But the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men\u2019s deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with both signalling to their supporters that the tall pillars of the criminal justice system \u2014 facts, evidence and law \u2014 could not be trusted as foundational principles in each other\u2019s administrations.
\u201cIt was a sad day for Lady Justice no matter which side of the political spectrum you\u2019re on,\u201d said John Fishwick Jr., a former US attorney in Virginia during the Obama administration. \u201cIn alternative ways, both Biden and Trump were sending the same message. Trump was saying it was a corrupt system the last four years, and Biden was saying it\u2019s about to be a corrupt system. And that\u2019s a horrible message.\u201d
In pardoning his siblings and their spouses in one of his final actions in office, Biden said his family had been \u201csubjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me \u2014 the worst kind of partisan politics\u201d.
He said he had \u201cno reason to believe these attacks will end\u201d, a similar rationale he cited when pardoning his son Hunter in December for tax and gun crimes despite having pledged not to.
He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol \u2014 all considered potential targets of investigation in a Trump administration despite no public evidence of any criminal behaviour.
Trump\u2019s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has for instance singled out Fauci as someone deserving of investigation and prosecution over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even as Biden said he believed in the rule of law and was \u201coptimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics\u201d, he acknowledged that \u201cexceptional circumstances\u201d compelled him to act.
That wobbly faith in the criminal justice system under Trump\u2019s watch appears to mirror the American public\u2019s perspective.
About half of Americans are \u201cnot very\u201d or \u201cnot at all\u201d confident that the Justice Department, the FBI or the Supreme Court will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump\u2019s second term. In each instance, roughly 3 in 10 are \u201csomewhat\u201d confident and about 2 in 10 are \u201cextremely\u201d or \u201cvery\u201d confident, according to an AP-NORC poll from January.
While the outgoing Democratic resident was convinced his successor could not be trusted not to target his perceived adversaries, including his own relatives, the incoming Republican president seemed equally convinced the prior administration engaged in political persecution of his supporters.
Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences of or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in the deadly January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot, a sweeping maneuver that far exceeded the forecasts of other Trump administration officials, who suggested the clemency grants would be narrower.
The clemency wiped out the largest investigation in Justice Department history, the beneficiaries including members of the mob of Trump supporters who violently attacked police officers with weapons like flag poles, bats and bear spray, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power.
Trump has cast the rioters as \u201chostages\u201d and \u201cpatriots\u201d despite the breadth of evidence accumulated by prosecutors and has complained that the cases were politically motivated despite no evidence of any coordination between the Justice Department and the White House.
\u201cThat\u2019s breathtaking. This is a man who does not believe in the rule of law. He believes he can do as he pleases. He\u2019s made that clear for many years,\u201d said Chris Edelson, an assistant American University professor specialising in presidential powers.
He said he did not fault Biden for the preemptive pardons, given Trump\u2019s warnings of reprisal.
\u201cIt would be a lie or at the very least misleading for President Biden to assure Americans that they can trust the system,\u201d Edelson said.
Questions about faith in the rule of law have taken centre stage as Trump looks for the Senate to confirm both Patel and his attorney general pick, Pam Bondi, who during her confirmation hearing last week told senators that she would not play politics while also suggesting that the Justice
For critics of the pardons like Fishwick, the former US attorney, the clemency risks adding to the misguided public perception that the criminal justice system is \u201crigged\u201d.
\u201cI think both Biden and Trump were using the pardon power as part of political statements,\u201d Fishwick said, \u201cand that\u2019s not how the Founding Fathers envisioned them being implemented by the president\u201d.
(AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A day that began with the outgoing president\u2019s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president\u2019s pardon of supporters who violently stormed the US Capitol four years ago.The clemency grants by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump \u2014 one benefiting uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[395],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-467243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nagalandpost.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}