Less than a week after President Joe Biden issued a sweeping pardon for his only surviving son — despite denying for months that he would do so — the White House appears to be leaving him room to maneuver on another, similar issue. The question of whether Biden might grant unprecedented preemptive pardons to a range of public figures who might find themselves in the crosshairs of Donald Trump’s second administration remains unanswered.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Friday repeatedly refused to say whether Biden is even considering such a test of the president’s pardon power, which could theoretically be invoked to prevent the next administration from investigating or bringing charges against people known to be antagonists of the incoming president.
