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(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden issued pardons to retired General Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot on Tuesday, just hours before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
People close to Trump expect the president-elect to try to prosecute those who have gone against him politically or tried to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his election loss in 2020.
In an earlier interview with NewsNation, US Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, that the House Judiciary Committee would consider potential investigations of the committee on January 6.
Biden said in a statement that the issuance of the pardons “should not be mistaken for an admission that any person is involved in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in a statement.
Several of those on the committee who received pardons Tuesday said publicly that they did not want them, nor did they feel they needed one at all. They include former Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
However, Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, has said he would accept the pardon for fear of prosecution in the incoming administration.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, would neither commit to prosecuting nor to prosecuting the president-elect’s political enemies during her confirmation hearing last week. Instead, she said she had to “look at the facts and circumstances.”
Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s behavior surrounding the January 6, 2021, unrest.
Fauci was the director ofNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseasesat the National Institutes of Health. He coordinated the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and drew Trump’s ire after refusing to support the president-elect’s claims about the virus.
Associated Press and NewsNation digital producer Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.
