President Joe Biden on Monday issued pardons for former chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 Capitol attack. The move came just hours before President-elect Donald Trump was set to be inaugurated as the 47th president.

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” Biden declared in a written statement. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”

The 82-year-old outgoing president praised the country’s “dedicated, selfless public servants,” while condemning the “threats and intimidation” they had endured in the course of performing their responsibilities.

“In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, and the members and staff of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol,” Biden noted.

“These individuals have served the United States with honor and distinction and should not be subjected to unjustified or politically motivated legal actions,” he emphasized.

Each individual granted clemency by Biden has, in some way, been at odds with the incoming administration or sought to hold it accountable for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

General Milley, who previously led the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly referred to Trump as a “wannabe dictator” and provided critical testimony regarding Trump’s behavior surrounding the violent events of January 6 during the House committee’s investigation.

Dr. Fauci, who retired as Biden’s chief medical advisor in 2022, became a controversial figure for his stance on the origins of COVID-19, having repeatedly dismissed the idea that the virus likely originated from a laboratory in China.

Biden’s pardons also covered members of the January 6 committee, including former Republican Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, as well as officers from the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police forces who gave testimony before the panel.

{Matzav.com}