Why have Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons caused such a stir? A president’s pardoning power has few limits
- Written by John Hart, Emeritus Faculty, US government and politics specialist, Australian National University
On his last day in office, outgoing United States President Joe Biden issued a number of preemptive pardons essentially to protect some leading public figures and members of his own family from possible retaliation by Donald Trump. It was a novel and innovative use of the presidential pardon power.
Among others, the preemptive pardons were for:
reti...
