Flashback: Chuck Schumer Called Preemptive Pardons ‘A Gross Abuse’ Of Authority In 2020
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) once called the possibility of President Donald Trump pre-emptively pardoning members of his inner circle “a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority.”
Schumer made these remarks in late 2020, less than two months before President Joe Biden was inaugurated. Now, on the same day Trump is inaugurated for a second term, Biden has preemptively pardoned multiple people.
“The president’s reportedly asking his staff whether he can issue pre-emptive pardons for himself, his family members, Rudy Giuliani,” Schumer said in 2020 in prepared remarks on the Senate floor. “There’s a simple answer: No. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority.”
“But I have a more important question: Just how long are our Republican colleagues going to indulge the president in this nonsense?” Schumer continued.
On Monday, as his last act as president, Biden issued pre-emptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, Gen. Mark Milley, the January 6 Committee, and several family members. Fauci’s pardon dates back to January 2014 and protects the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from “any offenses against the U.S. which he may have committed or taken part in.” The pardon protects him from these offenses while he was the head of NIAID, the White House Coronavirus Task Force, the White House COVID Response Team, or as Biden’s chief medical advisor.
As of this writing, Schumer has said nothing about Biden’s pardons, though he has posted about Martin Luther King Jr. Day. A Daily Wire inquiry to Schumer’s office went unanswered as of press time.
In December, Biden’s own Justice Department wrote in a court filing that those charged with crimes relating to the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol would be admitting guilt if they accepted a presidential pardon from Trump.
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“[A] pardon at some unspecified date in the future — which is purely speculative at this juncture — that pardon would not unring the bell of conviction,” the DOJ wrote. “In fact, quite the opposite. The defendant would first have to accept the pardon, which necessitates a confession of guilt.”
Biden himself warned about preemptive pardons in a 2020 interview with CNN, The Daily Wire reported.
“Now in terms of the pardons, you’re not going to see in our administration that kind of approach to pardons,” Biden said at the time. “Nor are you going to see in our administration the approach to making policy by tweets. You know, it’s going to be a totally different way to which we approach the justice system.”
In his message Monday about the pardons, Biden said that the “issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”