Growing White House Leak Points at Preemptive Pardons of Trump's Enemies

Discussions are ongoing in the US White House about whether preemptive pardons of Donald Trump's enemies should be considered, as an increasing number of leaks to multiple media outlets have shown.

On Friday, confirming an earlier report by Politico, Reuters, CBS News, and CNN cited undisclosed sources allegedly familiar with the discussions among Joe Biden's aides, stating that the president has already discussed the matter. However, per the reports, no decisions have been made. Additionally, while no specific names have been recommended to the president, the discussed list reportedly includes four names.

Among them are Anthony Fauci, who led the COVID-19 response under Biden; former Republican Liz Cheney, who campaigned against Trump; Gen. Mark Milley, who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and called Trump a "fascist"; and California's Senator-elect Adam Schiff, known for his efforts to impeach Trump.

Last month, in an interview with NPR, Schiff said he doesn't think a preemptive pardon makes sense.

"I think this is frankly so implausible as not to be worthy of much consideration," he said, urging the president not to do it and adding that it would seem defensive.

The White House has already signaled that more pardons might be expected by the end of Biden's term. Meanwhile, according to the U.S. Constitution, while a president has broad pardon powers, preemptive pardons for offenses that have not yet been charged are mostly untested.

This time, the idea of preemptive pardons was put on the agenda after Trump appointed Kash Patel to lead the FBI. Patel publicly stated that he wants to pursue critics of the president-elect.

Meanwhile, Trump himself also said that Cheney "should go to jail."

On December 1, Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter.