Sorry, Biden's Pardons Are Much Worse Than Trump's | Opinion
Both President Trump and Attorney General–designate Pam Bondi are positioned to stop lawfare, but only if the Democrats abjure their politicization of justice.
On inauguration day, President Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of the approximately 1,550 defendants convicted for their involvement with the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol. He also ordered DOJ to dismiss all other pending indictments. Most of them, about 900, were for non-violent misdemeanors such as trespass and disorderly conduct. He granted the clemency all at once, and did not begin with pardoning the non-violent misdemeanor defendants first and then examining the remaining defendants on a case-by-case basis as he and others previously had suggested.
Meanwhile, on the very same day, just 15 minutes before he left office, President Biden issued the last set of his own pardons. He granted them to members of his family, most notably his brothers, sister, and in-laws, as well as to members of his administration such as Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley, and even to political supporters like the congressional January 6 committee members. Biden's pardons followed thousands of pardons he issued this month to what he claimed were non-violent federal offenders and commutations of virtually all federal death penalties.
Many Democrats and media outlets have criticized Trump's mass clemency for the January 6 defendants, even as they casually ignored President Biden's. But let's put aside the hypocrisy for a moment to examine the real differences between the two sets of pardons, regardless of one's views of their merits.
First, Biden granted pardons and commutations to more than 8,000 individuals, which is more than any other modern president. Thousands of Biden's clemency grants were to serious criminals, including murderers, child killers, child abusers, and the biggest municipal embezzler in history, Rita Crundwell. Several of the grants benefitted well-connected Democrats. In both 2022 and 2024, Biden abused his pardon power to achieve mass sentencing reductions that Congress refused to pass by law. President Obama did the same thing when he issued mass commutations of drug sentences.
President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump are greeted by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, upon their arrival at the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump are greeted by President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden, upon their arrival at the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) Alex Brandon/APSecond, it's obviously not principle but politics that drove Biden's pardons; Biden's post-election mass death row commutations did not follow his self-proclaimed opposition to the death penalty. He left three men on death row whose commutations would have politically harmed Democrats. He did not commute the sentences of Dzhokar Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon bomber), Dylann Roof (murderer of nine black churchgoers in Charleston), and Robert Bowers (murderer of 11 worshippers a synagogue in Squirrel Hill, PA). Biden's alleged opposition to the death penalty also did not prevent DOJ from filing capital murder charges against Luigi Mangione.
Third, President Biden needs to pardon his family, officials, and allies only because he fears the very lawfare that he invented. Biden's DOJ broke more than two centuries of history to prosecute a former president and the candidate of the major opposition political party. He is like an arsonist who demands more spending on fire departments. Because of his stated fear of retaliation, Biden pardoned his family and associates before prosecutors ever launched investigations. These pardons were to Biden's own benefit, as their reciipients are much less likely to disclose any information that directly implicate President Biden to the family's alleged "pay to play, 10 percent for the Big Guy" schemes.
Contrast that with Trump's clemency, which did not directly benefit him or his family, and covered defendants who were actually convicted or charged, unlike Biden's preemptive pardons that covered up to 10 years' worth of potential and actual criminal activity for his family and allies.
In Trump's case, almost all of the defendants had undergone arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment. If Trump had followed Biden's example, as all future presidents may, he would have issued blanket pardons for all of the January 6 defendants on January 7, 2021. But he did not, and instead allowed the criminal justice system to proceed first, measured the results, and then decided whether pardons were warranted.
Crucially, President Trump also went to the public for approval before he issued the pardons. Biden told the American people he would not pardon his son, Hunter, and then issued his grants after the voters had rejected the incumbent party. Trump, by contrast, repeatedly stated on the campaign trail his belief that the J6 defendants, particularly the non-violent ones, were treated much worse than regular suspects, suffering from long solitary confinement and unusually heavy jail sentences. Trump could have used Biden's own words to justify granting clemency to the J6 defendants, because they "do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions."
Trump also has solid legal precedent to grant clemency to those many defendants whom the Biden/Garland DOJ charged with "obstruction or impediment of an official proceeding." In June 2024, the Supreme Court in Fischer v. U.S. rejected the DOJ's misusing Sarbanes-Oxley and that charge, which built upon the Court's precedents in cases like McDonnelland Yates. The J6 clemency extended the Supreme Court's reading to those who had been convicted beforehand.
It's not accident that President Biden waited until after the election to issue his most controversial pardons. Indeed, he waited until the last 15 minutes before the inauguration. Biden hid them from the public and refused to answer any questions about them. Trump by contrast openly discussed granting clemency to the J6 defendants throughout the campaign and gave the American people a chance to decide. He granted clemency on his first day in office, not his last.
Democrats have resorted to pardons because they appear to expect lawfare to continue. DOJ released Jack Smith's special counsel J6 report even though Trump had won the election and DOJ could no longer pursue charges. It is even trying to release the special counsel report about the Florida classified documents case, even though Trump's co-defendants are entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Both President Trump and Attorney General–designate Pam Bondi are positioned to stop the lawfare, but only if the Democrats abjure their politicization of criminal justice. Lawfare can descend on Democrats as easily as on Republicans.
John Yoo is a distinguished visiting professor at the School of Civic Leadership and a senior research fellow at the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, the Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. John Shu is a legal scholar and commentator who served in the administrations of Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush.
The views expressed in this article are the writers' own.
Relatives of an 8-year-old boy and his mother who were murdered by a Connecticut drug gang are outraged that a man convicted in the killings was one of nearly 2,500 people whose drug-related prison…
Read more >> : Cick here
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Elon Musk wasted no time taking shots at Donald Trump's Stargate initiative.
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The frontman looks to have made his final Celtic Park appearance
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
WETHERSPOONS is plotting to open its cut-price pubs abroad, The Sun can exclusively reveal. Boss Sir Tim Martin said the chain is considering franchises overseas after a string of successful partne…
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Star actress Jessica Alba took some time away from her fresh split to get a rush of adrenaline in New York City.
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Safe and sound.
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
‘The Apprentice’ star Maria Bakalova didn’t stay in character as Ivana Trump off the set: ‘That could have affected my mental health’.
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Major pharmacy chains are planning to shutter hundreds of stores in 2025, making access to medications more difficult.
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Kyle Richards explains why she has ‘not watched’ the last three episodes of ‘The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills’
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
The comedian and actor said the German shepherd helped make After Life his "favourite filming experience of all time" and he was glad he told her "a hundred times a day that she was a very good girl".
Read more >> : Cick here
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
Twitter (X), Inc. was an American social media company based in San Francisco, California, which operated and was named for its flagship social media network prior to its rebrand as X. In addition to Twitter, the company previously operated the Vine short video app and Periscope livestreaming service
Twitter (X) is one of the most popular social media platforms, with over 619 million monthly active users worldwide. One of the most exciting features of Twitter (X) is the ability to see what topics are trending in real-time. Twitter trends are a fascinating way to stay up to date on what people are talking about on the platform, and they can also be a valuable tool for businesses and individuals to stay relevant and informed. In this article, we will discuss Twitter (X) trends, how they work, and how you can use them to your advantage.
What are Twitter (X) Worldwide Trends?
Twitter (X) Worldwide trends are a list of topics that are currently being talked about on the platform and also world. The topics on this list change in real-time and are based on the volume of tweets using a particular hashtag or keyword. Twitter (X) Worldwide trends can be localized to a Worldwide country or region or can be global, depending on the topic's popularity.
How Do Twitter (X) Worldwide Trends Work?
Twitter (X) Worldwide trends are generated by an algorithm that analyzes the volume of tweets using a particular hashtag or keyword. When the algorithm detects a sudden increase in tweets using a specific hashtag or keyword, it considers that topic to be trending.
Once a topic is identified as trending, it is added to the list of Twitter (X) Worldwide trends. The topics on this list are ranked based on their popularity, with the most popular topics appearing at the top of the list.
Twitter (X) Worldwide trends can be filtered by location or category, allowing users to see what topics are trending in their area or in a particular industry. Additionally, users can click on a trending topic to see all of the tweets using that hashtag or keyword.