Donald Trump has now pardoned or commuted the sentences of around 1,500 January 6 protesters, including those who were convicted of crimes against police officers relating to the riot at the US Capitol.
But use of the presidential pardon in the last few days was not restricted to the incoming president. On his last day in office, outgoing president Joe Biden signed a number of pre-emptive pardons in an effort, he suggested, to shield people from possible “retribution” at Trump’s hands.
This included not just members of the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot, but also Anthony Fauci, former chief medical advisor to the president during the COVID pandemic, and Gen. Mark Milley, who retired in 2023 after four years as the nation’s most senior military officer, and whom Trump has previously suggested would have been executed for treason in a previous era.
