Joe Biden issued a plethora of pardons during his final days as de facto president [de facto: Existing in fact whether with lawful authority or not]. By some counts, the total number of Biden pardons exceeds 8,000, and he has even bragged about being the president who handed out the most pardons and sentence commutations in US history.
Some of those were of the “preemptive blanket pardon” variety and were specifically meant to shield the recipients from future prosecution for crimes committed. He also “blanket-pardoned” several thousand nonviolent drug offenders to obfuscate the blanket pardons given to family members and other cronies in his final days in office. And it is the likely criminal liability of those cronies that require both scrutiny and accountability in order to reset the political balance of the rule of law in America, which has been heavily skewed against Trump supporters over the last four-plus years.
As noted here, “Hunter’s and the Biden Crime Family’s criminality [exposure] included the coup d’etat in Ukraine beginning in 2014, the US Department of Defense biolabs tied to COVID-19/SARS-CoV bioweaponization that are located in that country and directly tie to the Biden’s via Metabiota, the massive money laundering portal that Ukraine is and private equity compensation through the energy sector via CEFC China Energy Company and Burisma [Ukraine].”
Then there is the obstruction of justice by the illegitimate J6 committee and their staffers, who destroyed video testimonies and other evidence. And former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley’s public admission that he’d call his communist Chinese counterpart in the event of a US attack on Beijing. And Fauci’s arbitrary COVID-19 mitigation polices (e.g., masks and social distancing) and mandates (mRNA jabs) that disabled, killed, and destroyed the lives of millions of Americans during the “plandemic.”
Why would Joe Biden need to issue preemptive pardons to his immediate family, the J6 committee (and their staffers!), Anthony Fauci, Mark Milley, and other high-profile members of the Biden regime if no criminality occurred? After all, the average man-on-the street would say when asked that anyone who receives a pardon is guilty of a crime.
Furthermore, acceptance of a pardon from Biden is a public admission of guilt despite the poor excuse given that these politically motivated pardons are meant to shield the recipients from the supposed “Trump vengeance and retribution” that will be unleashed over the next few years.
More importantly as noted here, “According to the landmark Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States (1915), accepting a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it.” This precedent clarifies that a pardon is not a magical exoneration but a legal acknowledgment of culpability. Thus, any recipient of a pardon who does not reject it implicitly admits to the very crimes the pardon forgives.”
So much for Biden’s claim that “The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.” [as quoted from the pardon issued to his family members] Being in direct contradiction of Burdick, this amounts to just another bald-faced lie by lying-est liar ever to occupy the Oval Office. The conclusion of the Burdick article linked above is damning: “If a pardon is both an absolution and an imputation of guilt, then Biden’s actions signal a disturbing willingness to trade accountability for political convenience.”
A POLITICAL STUNT
Political convenience indeed! Legal scholar Jonathan Turley calls Biden’s preemptive pardons a “political stunt” that will have bad consequences:
Preemptive pardons could become the norm as presidents pardon whole categories of allies and even themselves to foreclose federal prosecutions. It can quickly become the norm in what I recently wrote about as our “age of rage.”
It will give presidents cover to wipe away any threat of prosecution for friends, donors, and associates. This can include self-pardons issued as implied condemnations of their political opponents. It could easily become the final act of every president to pardon himself and all of the members of his Administration. We would then have an effective immunity rule for outgoing parties in American politics.
In short, preemptive pardons would allow future administrations to commit a plethora of crimes and then escape prosecution through blanket pardons before presidential transition process is completed and the new president sworn in. So much for accountability and the rule of law (which obviously suits some Democrats just fine, given that many clamored for Biden pardons up to the bitter end).
ARE THE PREEMPTIVE PARDONS LEGAL?
The fundamental question is this: Who receives pardons? Answer: convicted criminals receive pardons. Historically, the recipients of pardons and commutations of sentences are those who have been convicted of crimes and sentenced in a court of law. The legality of preemptive blanket pardons has not been adjudicated, and many legal scholars question the constitutionality of the theory (and a theory is what it is until determined and sustained in a court of law).
Constitutionality. While some such as Judicial Watch’s Tom Fitton claim that Biden’s blanket pardons “are invalid and constitutional nullities,” Reason provides analysis showing that preemptive presidential pardons – while essentially unprecedented except for the pardon of President Nixon – are in fact authorized by the US Constitution:
Under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, the president has plenary power to “grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” In the 1866 case Ex parte Garland, the Supreme Court held that “the power thus conferred is unlimited, with the exception stated.” That power, the Court said, “extends to every offence known to the law” and “may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency or after conviction and judgment.” Although pardons typically are granted after convictions, in other words, presidents may issue them in cases where no charges have yet been filed, provided the underlying conduct predates the pardon.
The Throckmorton doctrine. Others question the validity of the blanket preemptive pardons based on legal precedents. As noted here, “The THROCKMORTON DOCTRINE vitiates & nullifies the products of fraud: ‘The Throckmorton doctrine [UNITED STATES v. THROCKMORTON] holds that, ‘There is no question of the general doctrine that fraud vitiates the most solemn contracts, documents, and even judgments.’’” As Justia notes, the Throckmorton decision further states that “The maxim that fraud vitiates every proceeding must be taken, like other general maxims, to apply to cases where proof of fraud is admissible.”
Consider that the Biden regime has used every heavy-handed legal and bureaucratic pressure to suppress the evidence of fraud in the 2020 election (there has never been a full forensic audit in any major county in the US), the COVID plandemic (suppression of proven therapeutic drugs and promotion of emergency-use-authorized mRNA jabs), the planted pipe bomb at the DNC on J6 (video evidence suppressed and investigation prematurely terminated), and the J6 “fedsurrection” (suppression of video evidence that exonerated J6 political prisoners, as well as participation by federal agents in the crowd on J6).
The Biden DoJ surely understood the implication of Throckmorton on the illegitimacy of the Biden presidency and its subsequent executive orders and administrative actions! If/when the Trump DoJ successfully prosecutes RICO and conspiracy cases against Biden regime players for these and other crimes, the Throckmorton doctrine can be invoked, which would render all of Biden’s executive orders, policies, authorizations, appointments, and administrative actions null and void.
ACCOUNTABILITY IN ANY EVENT
While invoking Throckmorton may be a long shot – after all, it would take enormous political willpower by President Trump and the Republican Party to construct and prosecute bullet-proof RICO and conspiracy cases and defeat the Democrats’ formidable lawfare enterprise – there are other forms of accountability that should be pursued:
1. Political accountability. Anyone accepting a Biden pardon is essentially admitting guilt, according to the Burdick decision. Acceptance of a pardon removes one’s 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination. Republicans in Congress should convene hearings and question those pardoned about the crimes they are alleged to have committed (after thorough investigations develop the evidence that could be used in perjury traps during testimony). Shedding sunlight on their crimes will be politically cathartic for the county, which has endured eight years of Democrat lies and false narratives that need to be exposed accordingly. Lastly, any members of Congress or senior executives in the federal government who accept pardons must have their security clearances revoked, and members of Congress should be removed from all committee assignments and forced to resign from Congress in ignominy.
2. State prosecutions. Presidential pardons do not preclude state prosecutions for crimes committed. These people can be prosecuted for state-specific crimes like fraud or negligence, as Biden’s federal pardon only covers federal offenses.
3. Civil lawsuits. Civil suits are not precluded by presidential pardons. This opens the door for class-action lawsuits and individual lawsuits by aggrieved parties. Fauci in particular would be in considerable legal danger, as would all the feds involved in 6th Amendment violations against J6 protestors. These people must be pursued to the ends of the Earth through civil lawsuits to hold them accountable, as well as for the purposes of restitution through civil penalties.
CONCLUDING THOUGHTS
Joe Biden’s preemptive blanket pardons are controversial, to say the least. They are obviously intended to let his family and Democrat cronies off the hook for their many crimes – crimes that have long been exposed through open source reporting by independent media. As Jonathan Turley notes, this is a political stunt that damages the Republic. Even some Democrats and a few in the legacy media have questioned their issuance, if not condemned them outright. They well understand the political optics and the long-term damage the pardons do to the Democrat political narrative, not to mention the rule of law.
Regardless, what is needed is accountability for the actions of anyone in the political class and/or federal government who accepts a Biden pardon, as their acceptance is an admission of guilt. That accountability must be political at the very least but needs to hit them in the pocketbook if at all possible through civil suits. It’s long past time that real justice be served to these people.
The end.
