President Trump criticized former President Biden for pardoning several members of his family during his last moments as commander in chief, with Trump arguing the actions make “him look very guilty.”
“That makes him look very guilty,” Trump said while speaking to reporters late Monday in the Oval Office as he signed a number of executive orders.
“I could have pardoned my family. I could have pardoned myself and my family,” he said. “I said, ‘If I do that, it’s going to make me look very guilty’ – I don’t think I’d be sitting here, frankly.”
Trump also said the pardons announced before he was sworn in create an “unbelievable” precedent for a sitting president.
“Now maybe every president that leaves office, they’re going to pardon every person they’ve ever met,” he said.
Biden announced the final pardons in the last minutes of his presidency as Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Capitol Hill was ongoing Monday. The blanket pardons were issued for Biden’s sister-in-law, Sara Jones Biden, his brother, James Biden, sister Valerie Biden Owens, brother-in-law John T. Owens and the ex-president’s youngest brother, Francis Biden.
“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 said in a statement on Monday. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
Biden stated that is not an admission of guilt or acknowledgment of any wrongdoing by his family members. The pardons cover any nonviolent offense from Jan. 1, 2024 to Sunday, Biden’s last full day as president.
Some of Biden’s family members testified in front of the then-House Oversight and Accountability Committee, the panel that probed Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, over alleged influence peddling.
Biden late last year pardoned his son Hunter, who was found guilty in a federal case on three felony charges over his purchase and possession of a gun in 2018. Hunter Biden had also pleaded guilty to nine federal tax charges, avoiding a trial.
The former president had repeatedly pledged not to pardon his son.
In addition to his family members, Biden earlier Monday issued preemptive pardons for former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Biden also pardoned lawmakers who were on the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
