By their very nature, convicted criminals receive pardons for previous bad acts. But is Joe Biden about to break new ground using presidential pardons? After all, he pardoned his crackhead, criminal son Hunter after proclaiming many times that he would not do so. He told the American electorate to respect the judicial process. As we learned on December 1, 2024, his “word as a Biden” was absolute bullshit.

Now the question as he leaves the presidency in disgrace is who will he pardon preemptively without a successful prosecution and a sentence imposed? Anthony Fauci? Jim Biden? Liz Cheney? Bennie Thompson? Merrick Garland? Mark Milley, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff? Alejandro Mayorkas? Cassidy Hutchinson and anyone else who committed perjury, plus others in furtherance of false prosecutions, should be tried and convicted. Politically motivated prosecutors Jack Smith, Fani Willis, and Letitia James should be disbarred. Corrupt, biased judges must be removed from the bench like Arthur Engoron and Juan Merchan.

After four years of Biden’s mismanagement of American domestic and foreign policy and the most massive presidential coverup in U.S. history—for every member of his cabinet to fail to impose the provisions of the 25th Amendment and remove Biden from office for his obvious cognitive decline and remove this husk of a president from office—the list is almost endless. We think of them as a cabal of clowns.

The president has broad pardon powers embedded in the Constitution.

Here are some of the players who are likely candidates for Biden-issued preemptive pardons:

Before his presidency, Biden’s improper off-site storage of his papers left him legally exposed, according to Special Prosecutor Robert Hur. While protected by presidential immunity for acts committed during his presidency (the same as Trump), his illegal acts through a series of dubious executive orders (that will be repealed by the incoming Trump administration). Other illegal actions through executive orders, like ignoring Supreme Court rulings, pushed forward his agenda on a wide variety of public policies like student loan forgiveness. The last action was his vote-buying scheme, forcing hard-working blue-collar taxpayers to pay for the $100,000 education of woke graduates possessing useless gender studies degrees that qualified them to flip burgers at In-N-Out for $20 an hour. It’s not only unconstitutional but punishes non-elite taxpayers for decades to come.

Can and will Joe Biden pardon himself? We will likely find out today between now and 11:59 AM as dignitaries file into the United States Capitol Rotunda to inaugurate the 47th President of the United States, Donald John Trump. After that, Joe Biden’s pardon powers will evaporate, forever.

Biden’s exit can’t come a moment too soon. Let’s hope that Republican district attorneys and congressional committees bring this cabal of clowns to justice and see that they pay for their crimes and serve long prison sentences. This will serve as a warning to both political parties to never again deploy third-world lawfare to attempt to take a political opponent off any ballot, from local school board races up to the Office of the Presidency.

Unfortunately, let’s also assume that justice for these serial offenses will not come swiftly and will not likely be decisive. This is Washington, D.C., where corruption and depravity are part of the landscape, where most everyone is in on the grift and will do whatever it takes—including taking down their colleagues—to save their hides. With so much entanglement and plenty of legal violations to go around, we expect an army of lawyers to get quite wealthy, as those who did not sidle up to Joe Biden for their preemptive pardon will now have the entirety of corruption wrapped around their necks.

And what if a movement to void these pardons (as well as just about anything Biden signed in the past few years) emerges, citing Biden’s obvious infirmity and inability to cognitively understand what he was signing? Could these pardons, commutations, and clemencies be rendered invalid? Could the criminal activities of this rogue’s gallery actually be prosecuted, preemptive pardons notwithstanding?

Did the Democrat’s unwillingness to invoke the 25th Amendment years ago provide Trump the ammunition to properly wipe out every single one of these actions by an enfeebled man with late-stage dementia?

We can only dream.

Richard Truesdell is a former consumer electronics retail executive and automotive travel photojournalist. In the last 25 years, he has visited more than 35 countries on six continents. A former high school history teacher with a BA in Political Science from Waynesburg University, he is a lifelong Conservative moderate who has turned his thoughts and keyboard to political commentary and popular culture. A cross-section of his writings can be found here.

Keith Lehmann is a retired consumer electronics industry executive who has written extensively on technology, transportation, and international travel. Living in Southern California for over fifty years, he has first-hand exposure to societal and cultural happenings of the left and submits decidedly realism-based, Conservative viewpoints, much of which can be found on his Substack.