(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden issued pardons for retired Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci and members of the congressional committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot on Monday, just hours before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump.
People who are close to Trump expect the president-elect might try to prosecute those who have gone against him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss.
In a previous interview with NewsNation, U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said the House Judiciary Committee would be considering potential investigations into the Jan. 6 Committee.
Biden said in a statement that the issuance of the pardons “should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged 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, including former Republican representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, publicly said they did not want them, nor did they feel they needed them.
However, Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee, has gone on record saying he would accept the pardon for fear of prosecution in the incoming administration.
Trump’s pick for attorney general, Pam Bondi, wouldn’t commit either way to prosecuting or not prosecuting the incoming president’s political foes during her confirmation hearing last week. Instead, she said she needed to “look at the facts and circumstances.”
Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s conduct around the Jan. 6, 2021, riot.
“My family and I are deeply grateful for the president’s action today,” Milley said in a statement. “After 43 years of faithful service in uniform to our nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights. I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense and anxiety.”
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health. He coordinated the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised the ire of Trump after refusing to back the president-elect’s claims about the virus.
In a statement Monday, Fauci said he appreciates the pardon.
“Despite the accomplishments that my colleagues and I achieved over my long career of public service, I have been the subject of politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution. There is absolutely no basis for these threats,” Fauci said. “Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime, and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family.”
The Associated Press and NewsNation digital producer Cassie Buchman contributed to this report.