Moments before his presidency ended Monday, Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons for his family members.
Those pardoned include his brother and sister-in-law, James B. Biden and Sara Jones Biden; his sister and her husband, Valerie Biden Owens and John T. Owens, and his other brother, Francis W. Biden.
In a statement, he said:
My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.
I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances.
That is why I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens, and Francis W. Biden. The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.
He issued a slew of pardons and commutations in the moments before leaving office, including for aides and allies that have been targeted by Donald Trump. None have been charged with any crimes.
Last month, he pardoned his son, Hunter for tax and gun crimes.
Biden also commuted the life sentence of indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.
Peltier was denied parole as recently as July and wasn’t eligible for parole again until 2026. He was serving life in prison for the deaths of the agents during a standoff on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He will transition to home confinement, Biden said in a statement.
The fight for Peltier’s freedom is entangled with the Indigenous rights movements. Nearly half a century later, his name remains a rallying cry.
An enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa in North Dakota, Peltier was active in the American Indian Movement, which began in the 1960s as a local organization in Minneapolis that grappled with issues of police brutality and discrimination against Native Americans. It quickly became a national force.
The movement grabbed headlines in 1973 when it took over the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation, leading to a 71-day standoff with federal agents. Tensions between the movement and the government remained high for years.
On June 26, 1975, agents came to Pine Ridge to serve arrest warrants amid battles over Native treaty rights and self-determination.
After being injured in a shootout, agents Jack Coler and Ronald Williams were shot in the head at close range, FBI has said. Also killed in the shootout was American Indian Movement member Joseph Stuntz.
Two other movement members, Robert Robideau and Dino Butler, were acquitted of killing Coler and Williams.
After fleeing to Canada and being extradited to the United States, Peltier was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder and sentenced in 1977 to life in prison, despite defense claims that evidence against him had been falsified.
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