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Today is pardon day

At the last minute, Joe Biden:

  • Pardoned the J6 committee members and the Capitol police officers who testified before them.
  • Pardoned Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark Milley.
  • Pardoned five close family members.
  • Commuted the remaining sentence of native American activist Leonard Peltier.
  • Posthumously pardoned civil rights leader Marcus Garvey.
  • On Sunday he pardoned Darryl Chambers, a gun violence prevention advocate; Virginia House Speaker Don Scott (D-Portsmouth), who was convicted of a nonviolent drug offense in 1994; immigrant rights activist Ravi Ragbir; and criminal justice reform advocate Kemba Smith Pradia.

Busy morning! Later today I assume Trump will pardon all or most of the J6 insurrectionists.

24 thoughts on “Today is pardon day

  1. KJK

    The 2nd Reich has begun. I do feel sorry for those ex presidents (spouses, ex VP's etc.) who elected to sit through the likely hour long projectile vomiting of lies and hate coming out of that orange pie hole. Michelle Obama was the only one who had enough sense to not attend.

    1. Josef

      He didn't attend Bidens, I see no reason why any Democrat would attend his. Shit, as far as I know he still hasn't conceded the 2020 election. So he can take his inauguration and shove it up his ass.

  2. MikeTheMathGuy

    This makes me overwelmingly sad -- that we now have to issue pardons for people who did nothing wrong, and merely did their jobs faithfully to the oaths they had taken.

    I wish Biden had framed the announcement even more forcefully than he did, pointing out that members of the incoming administration have already announced who they plan to indict before even seeing any evidence or deciding on the charges -- pretty much the opposite of everything the Constitution stands for. And it's easy for me to say, but I also almost wish someone like Liz Cheney would decline the pardon, daring the bullies to bring it on.

  3. MF

    This is like what happens when a Latin American junta goes out of power - first they issue pardons for all of the boys.

    I am going to laugh and laugh the next time Democrats claim it is Republicans who are breaking norms.

        1. Josef

          There's no need. SCOTUS made that possible. Besides Trump has made it clear he's out for retribution for all his perceived grievances. So a preemptive pardon was warranted. And don't think for a second that if his fed trials went ahead and he was found guilty that he wouldn't pardon himself. He would in a heart beat.

            1. KJK

              When you have fucking fascists running the WH, DOJ, $ FBI, and they have threatened to prosecute innocent people who could be financially and professionally destroyed fighting the bull shit charges, preemptive pardons certainly make sense to me.

              Nobody was threatening Trump's family, or members his administration, or congress members, or doctors, or generals with retribution.

              Its now the beginning of Orange Mussolini's 2nd Reich, and he has expressly stated that he will be seeking revenge on his enemies (anyone who has said anything negative about him or criticized him)

              And I don't fucking care what you think or say about this.

              1. MF

                1. Plenty of people were talking about criminal investigations of Trump, his family, and his supporters at the end of his term. Despite that no primitive pardons.

                2. There appear to be appropriate grounds for criminal investigation of many of the people Bidden pardoned.
                a. Milley did something close to a military coup at the end of Trump's presidency. If you disagree, please tell me what you will think if it comes out that an anti-Biden general ordered the military to check with him before following Biden's orders at the end of his presidency.
                b. Hunter Biden was actually convicted.
                c. Jim Biden was definitely making money off his relationship with Joe Biden and may have crossed the line to bribery and other crimes.
                d. The use of private emails to deliberately avoid FOI requests was apparently widespread and widely known in NIH and may have been a criminal conspiracy. We do not yet know who directed it but it presumably was someone at our near the top, perhaps Fauci himself.

        2. Larry Jones

          Shrug. Trump could hardly wait to pardon 1,500 convicted criminals, many guilty of violent crimes, all involved in Trump's attempt to overthrow the government. Biden justifiably reacted to Trump's repeated threats to use his office to torment people he is mad at. There is no equivalence.

          Meanwhile, The Oath Boys and Proud Keepers will know that their leader has their backs next time he orders them to commit mayhem.

  4. rick_jones

    And now, preemptive pardons in hand, will we see these folks hauled before committee after committee and forced to testify, their Fifth Amendment rights made moot?

    1. MF

      Oh definitely!!!

      The pardons are a gilt edged invitation to do that. To explore in minute detail exactly what crimes these people can no longer be prosecuted for.

      1. Josef

        Beat every dead horse for the theatrics alone. Because there won't be anything substantial about any investigation under Trump. Just a dog and pony show. And there won't ever be any investigations into his unethical, immoral and borderline illegal activities. His basket of deplorable toadies he's calling his administration will make sure of that.

      2. KJK

        Since they didn't commit any crimes, the only thing they will testify in front of Congress is that your Fearless Leader is a fucking moron. They can also bring in General John Kelly to testify that Trump considers US soldiers who died, or were wounded, or captured in combat to be "suckers and losers".

    2. Yehouda

      In the case of Fauci and Milley, it will be quite interesting to hear them telling about all the interactions that they have with Trump and other members of his administration which currently they don't tell us because they regard them as confidential.
      Trump will probably use Executive privilege to stop them from giving evidence.

  5. Dana Decker

    That Biden felt he had to issue pardons *to his family* at the end makes it clear to just about everyone (maybe even him) what a monumental fuckup he was the last two years. History books will say that he (and Garland) failed to stop Trump's return, which they could have done.

    Today he said, "... I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics."

    Foolish senile egoist.

    re Garland: He wouldn't release Volume 2 (classified docs) by Jack Smith because it would contaminate a jury in the case against Trump's two co-conspirators. He could have dropped the cases and released Volume 2, which is of great importance. Instead, he's handing the case over to Pam Bondi! For me, that's proof that all along he was running interference for Trump. Not that he's a Trump stan, but because of his prim holier-than-thou fussbudget mind, and that he's still intimidated from getting punked by the GOP re SCOTUS (pace those who said his SCOTUS rejection would make him aggressive). And if it wasn't clear, in his farewell address he said:

    "It is the obligation of each of us to follow our norms, not only when it is easy, but also when it is hard, especially when it is hard. It is the obligation of each of us to adhere to our norms, even when and especially when the circumstances we face are not normal."

    Norms are procedural and don't always have to be followed (deckchairs on Titanic). Garland used Norms as a cloak to disguise his deliberately sluggish prosecution of Trump and his top lieutenants.

  6. pjcamp1905

    Leonard Peltier should have been pardoned. By Clinton. Or Obama. Or Biden at the beginning of his term. He is an innocent man who has spent his life in prison simply because the FBI does not want to admit that it lied and fabricated evidence.

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