Pardon Our Investigations
After he walked out of the Oval Office for the last time—literally, after he had left the building—the final set of pardons granted by President Joe Biden took effect, with mere minutes left in his term, giving pardons to his siblings and their spouses for anything dating back to 2014. That, of course, was the same time frame given to his son, Robert Hunter Biden.
The reason given for those preemptive pardons, and the ones announced earlier in the day for folks like Dr. Fauci, Gen. Milley, and the J6 committee, was because even though no one had done anything wrong and would ultimately prevail, the time and financial cost of defending against allegations would not be fair.
Apparently it was fair when it was their political opponent. But I digress.
To state the obvious, there is nothing about a pardon being granted that means you can no longer investigate the wrongdoing. In fact, it’s even easier to get folks to talk under oath…before, these folks under scrutiny could refuse to answer under the Fifth Amendment provisions against self-incrimination. But with a pardon…there’s no crime that can be brought, so no protection against incrimination.
So sure, you may still have plenty of Congressional investigations into all of this. But a cautionary note to Republicans—just because you can do something does not mean you should.
No, crooks and shysters should not get away with things. But if Republicans can’t get out of their own way in passing a budget on time, passing a farm bill, keeping taxes low—in other words, their jobs—and the public perceives them focusing on retribution against enemies as opposed to directly making life better for the American people, then the midterm will be a colossal failure for the GOP.
Yes, members of Congress should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. But given how poorly Congress has served the people, especially of late, perhaps the focus should be on scoring wins for everyday citizens first…and cleaning up D.C.-based messes after that.
