Biden pardons relations in last minutes of presidency

President Biden introduced pardons for members of his household within the final minutes of his presidency, a stunning growth as President-elect Trump’s inauguration is already underway.

The blanket pardons have been granted to his brother, James Biden; Sara Jones Biden, his sister-in-law; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens; John T. Owens, his brother-in-law; and Francis Biden, Biden’s different brother.

“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden mentioned in an announcement. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”

Biden mentioned the pardons don’t acknowledge any wrongdoing, nor ought to acceptance be considered as an request for forgiveness. They cowl any nonviolent offenses from Jan. 1, 2014, to Sunday. 

The pardon for the Biden relations got here after a quantity testified earlier than the Home Oversight Committee because it investigated each President Biden and son Hunter Biden in a probe they mentioned was devoted to affect peddling.

Whereas President Biden pardoned Hunter Biden in December, he had not but carried out so for different relations, risking continued congressional oversight.

Final week, Home Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) had known as on the incoming lawyer common to carry contempt of Congress costs in opposition to James Biden, accusing him of mendacity to the panel throughout a deposition.

“Though President Biden’s saccharine (and wholly ironic) rantings of political persecution and weaponized prosecution of Hunter Biden are specious, they are inapplicable to the non-prosecution of his brother, James Biden, who has lied to the United States Congress and has faced no accountability to date,” Comer wrote in a letter final week in a letter to Pam Bondi, Trump’s decide to guide the Division of Justice.

“I write to encourage the Department under your leadership to hold James Biden accountable for lying to Congress to protect his brother, the soon-to-be-former President Biden. No one should be above the law, regardless of his last name.”