Moscow, India, others rally behind Afghanistan amidst Bagram airbase tussle
The 7th Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan has concluded in Russia with participants issuing a joint statement heavily hinting at a joint oppo...
President Joe Biden on Monday issued preemptive pardons for Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members of Congress who served on the committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, using extraordinary executive prerogative as a shield against revenge by his incoming successor, Donald Trump.
The pardons, coming in the final hours of Biden’s presidency, amount to a stunning flex of presidential power that is unprecedented in recent presidential history. They serve to protect several outspoken critics of the incoming president, including former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney, whom Trump has vowed retribution against.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden wrote in a statement, issued hours before he was set to welcome Trump to the White House for tea before attending his swearing-in. “Baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety and financial security of targeted individuals and their families.”
Biden had been weighing issuing the pardons in the waning days of his presidency, concerned Trump would enter office and immediately seek to prosecute his adversaries. In his statement, he spelled out his rationale, saying “alarmingly, public servants have been subjected to ongoing threats and intimidation for faithfully discharging their duties.”
The recipients of Biden’s pardons have all faced intense criticism from Trump and his allies.
Fauci served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infection Disease for decades, including during the outbreak of Covid in Trump’s first presidency, and Milley served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and has warned Trump is a fascist.
Biden, in his statement, noted that the pardons did not denote guilt.
“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. Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country,” he wrote.
As he weighed preemptive pardons over the past several days, the president has made clear in conversations with aides that he does not believe those who received them were guilty of any crimes – and voiced concern that pardoning them could connote guilt, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Ultimately, Biden put aside those concerns with the view that providing protection would outweigh the potential implication of guilt.
In doing so, he is taking a step that’s unprecedented in presidential history. Preemptive pardons on such a sweeping scale have never previously been issued. When President Gerald Ford pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, the 37th president was facing a real threat of prosecution. None of those on Biden’s list appeared at risk of imminent legal action, but Biden believed the threat was real enough that protection was necessary.
In a statement to CNN, Milley said he and his family were “deeply grateful” for Biden’s action.
“After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights,” Milley said. “I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety.”
Some of those who were issued the last-minute pardons did not get a heads-up, a person familiar tells CNN.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least eight people have died and more than 90 others were injured following a catastrophic gas tanker explosion on a major highway in Mexico City’s Iztapalapa district on Wednesday, authorities confirmed.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
A powerful 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on 13 September with no tsunami threat, coming just weeks after the region endured a devastating 8.8-magnitude quake — the strongest since 1952.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
The 7th Moscow Format Consultations on Afghanistan has concluded in Russia with participants issuing a joint statement heavily hinting at a joint opposition to any foreign military infrastructure in Afghanistan.
Former FBI Director James Comey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to criminal charges, and his lawyer said he would file a barrage of legal challenges to the first prosecution by the Justice Department against one of President Donald Trump's political enemies.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is expected to attend a ministerial meeting in Paris on Thursday with representatives of Europe, the Arab world and other nations to discuss Gaza's post-conflict transition, according to three diplomatic sources.
Germany will grant police the power to shoot down rogue drones like those that have disrupted airports across Europe and that some European leaders have attributed to a hybrid war being waged by Russia.
Czech Republic election winner ANO hopes to conclude negotiations with two small parties on forming a new government by the beginning of November, party leader Andrej Babis said on Wednesday (8 October).
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment