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President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon Hunter Biden has, predictably, generated a significant controversy, but if some key figures in Democratic politics have their way, the next presidential pardons could be even more contentious. Politico reported:
President Joe Biden’s senior aides are conducting a vigorous internal debate over whether to issue preemptive pardons to a range of current and former public officials who could be targeted with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the White House, according to senior Democrats familiar with the discussions.
In case this isn’t obvious, the idea behind preemptive pardons is to shield innocent people from potential — by some measures, likely — prosecutorial abuses before they happen. In other words, people close to Biden believe Trump and his loyalists, hellbent on revenge and fueled by retaliatory ambitions, will probably pursue illegitimate investigations into perceived foes — and the outgoing Democratic president can prevent that from happening by issuing a sweeping set of pardons now, before exiting the White House.
The Politico report coincided with a lengthy and spirited written statement from Rep. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania — the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee and Biden ally — who weighed in on the intra-party debate.
“By choosing Kash Patel as his FBI Director, Trump has made it clear that he is more focused on settling personal scores than on protecting the American people or upholding the rule of law,” Boyle wrote. “Patel has openly published an ‘enemies list’ in his book, naming individuals he and Trump plan to investigate and prosecute — targeting those who stood up to Trump’s lies, abuses of power, and baseless attempts to overturn the 2020 election. This is no hypothetical threat.
“The people they’re targeting include law enforcement officers, military personnel, and others who have spent their lives protecting this country,” the congressman added. “These patriots shouldn’t have to live in fear of political retribution for doing what’s right. That’s why I’m urging President Biden to issue a blanket pardon for anyone unjustly targeted by this vindictive scheme.
“If we’re serious about stopping Trump’s authoritarian ambitions, we need to act decisively and use every tool at our disposal,” Boyle concluded, adding, “The time for cautious restraint is over. We must act with urgency to push back against these threats and prevent Trump from abusing his power.”
This is not, however, an easy call. Because there’s no precedent for Trump’s retaliatory ambitions, there’s no precedent for an outgoing president to issue blanket pardons for those who’ve done nothing wrong. Indeed, such a step might leave the impression that the beneficiaries need Biden’s protection, even if the facts suggest otherwise.
What’s more, it’s not altogether clear whether those included on such a list would even accept such a pardon.
And in case that weren’t quite enough, I wouldn’t envy those trying to come up with such a list. Where would it end? Biden would probably want to protect Jan. 6 committee members, for example, as well as military personnel who’ve been on the receiving end of Trump’s over-the-top condemnations. But what about the Clintons? And abortion providers? And journalists? And Anthony Fauci?
There’s a school of thought that suggests that even if Trump and his minions were to try to bring bogus charges against any or all of these people, it wouldn’t matter because the cases would be thrown out of court. That’s possible. It’s also possible that the cases would end up before a Trump-appointed judge who is indifferent to the merits.
Either way, the cases would be expensive and difficult nuisances for the Republicans’ targets, which the retiring president is no doubt aware of.
This discussion probably won’t end anytime soon, though with Jan. 20 looming on the calendar, Biden’s timeframe is limited.