Donald Trump is reportedly planning to pardon advisers, policymakers, and others as his administration weathers piling criminal allegations.
Three Trump insiders told the outlet Zeteo that Trump has said “they had to” pardon members of his inner circle and that it’s a “good idea” to do so before he leaves office. The conversations have been sporadic, they said, but have involved the president, senior aides, and federal appointees.
It’s not clear how expansive Trump’s pardon list would be. Still, it would likely include key policy advisers such as Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, whose push to expand ICE detentions dramatically and deportations has landed the administration in court and sparked protests and riots in American cities.
Trump’s inner circle has already begun positioning a defense, the sources told Zeteo. “Biden did it,” a senior Trump appointee told the outlet.
Last year, former President Joe Biden’s final executive action was issuing pardons to several family members just minutes before Trump’s inauguration. The pardons covered James B. Biden, Biden’s brother, accused of making false statements to Congress; Sara Jones Biden, his sister-in-law; Valerie Biden Owens, his younger sister; John T. Owens, his brother-in-law; and Francis W. Biden, his brother.
Hunter Biden was pardoned by Biden on Dec. 1, shielding him from prosecution over lying allegations and on unrelated charges.
Biden, 83, said at the time that he acted out of concern over potential political “attacks” against himself and his family once he left office.
Trump, meanwhile, has condemned Biden’s use of the pardon power. He previously slammed the Hunter Biden pardon as “an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”
Now, Trump, 79, appears to be weighing pardons for different reasons. Much of his second term has been defined by legal scrutiny of his own actions and those of his administration.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, for example, is facing war crimes allegations stemming from claims that he ordered a second strike to kill survivors of a missile attack on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.
An Obama-appointed federal judge also said in November that he would move forward with a criminal contempt inquiry related to Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to expedite deportations of alleged Venezuelan gang members, CNN reported.
Judge James Boasberg had ordered the administration in March to halt flights carrying migrants to a prison in El Salvador—an order the administration reportedly ignored.
Trump has also leaned heavily on his executive authority. As of Dec. 10, he had granted clemency to roughly 1,600 people this year, including about 1,500 individuals “convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near” the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, the Wall Street Journal reported.
By comparison, Biden issued 4,245 acts of clemency during his presidency, the majority of them in his final year in office.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson did not confirm whether pardons for Trump officials were planned, telling Zeteo in a statement: “If they want to talk about preemptive pardons they should ask Joe Biden why he preemptively pardoned his family – including Corrupt Hunter Biden – and others like Anthony Fauci. What rationale did he have? What did Joe know that he wouldn’t tell us. Joe Biden owes the American people answers.”
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