No further info in the article as it’s breaking news. NBC broke into the inauguration to announce it.

Biden pardoned his entire family and their spouses as Trump directly threatened all of them.

  • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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    1 hour ago

    If you have to pardon your family since the future felon peesident is assuming office that has no safeguarda against dictatorship, yhen you really shouldve just have the next guy arrested and sent to guantanamo bay

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      46 minutes ago

      “The Repbulicans under Trump will end Democracy! Vote for us!”

      “How about you use your legal powers to prevent a threat to Democracy? How about you run on a popular platform?”

      “Yeah no, we don’t do that. Also we got Dick Cheney on board. Look at all the ghosts of Iraqi kids he murdered glooming behind him. Aren’t they cute? Also we will enact more policies for the good billionaires. #Vibes.”

    • SirEDCaLot@lemmy.today
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      5 hours ago

      They don’t, but that’s not the point. Trump has suggested that various members of Biden’s family and inner circle I have done wrong and should be prosecuted. This is preemptively heading that off, ensuring that there cannot be a witch hunt.

    • JPAKx4@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 hours ago

      In the US it’s just basically untested, but it probably wouldn’t hold up but you can still write it on the paper 🤷‍♂️

      • Stern@lemmy.world
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        33 minutes ago

        https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/71/333/

        The power of pardon conferred by the Constitution upon the President is unlimited except in cases of impeachment. It extends to every offence known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. The power is not subject to legislative control.

        I don’t think Trump would try it since he probably wants to use it on himself as well, but then again SCOTUS could be on some “rules for me, but not for thee” shit with it and it wouldn’t matter anyhow.

      • COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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        9 hours ago

        With the Trump appointed supreme court it definitely won’t hold up, but maybe it could delay whatever meaningless charges he can come up with long enough for another election. If we’re lucky enough to have another real election that is at least.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I don’t think they are preemptive pardons in the sense that they are pardons for future crimes. They are pardons for unspecified past crimes that have not yet been charged. That is not unheard of. For example, Carted issued blanket pardons for everyone who dodged the draft during the Vietnam war whether they had been charged or not.

      Where it is untested is if he tried to pardon himself. That has never been tested in the courts and is generally considered invalid on the premise that you cannot be the judge in your own trial.

      • SSTF@lemmy.world
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        57 minutes ago

        Or more recently (and I suppose in the same wheelhouse as the topic at hand), Hunter Biden’s pardon was a blanket pardon for any potential crimes that may have been committed on January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024. It wasn’t just for what he had specifically been charged with at the time.

      • jagged_circle@feddit.nl
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        8 hours ago

        So basically it just sets the statue of limitations of everything to 0?

        So if we find out one of these people raped someone at some point before this pardon, there will be no justice?

        • TheBeege@lemmy.world
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          6 hours ago

          Presidential pardons are only for federal crimes. Rape is likely a state crime. I haven’t checked

  • BlameThePeacock
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    14 hours ago

    An outgoing president needing to pardon his family pre-emptively because the incoming president is threatening them is well along the path to fascism.

    Good job electing Trump you fucking morons. I hope that the consequences of your own actions hurt you more than they hurt the rest of the world.

    • Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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      11 hours ago

      FWIW, as an American, I really hope you’re right. Because there is serious potential for us to fuck up the entire rest of the world for a very, very long time.

    • cm0002@lemmy.world
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      13 hours ago

      Good job electing Trump you fucking morons.

      I’d like to thank the Gaza single issue voters and bLuEMagA mouth breathers, good job guys!

      • Anas@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Gaza was either not big enough to affect the result, or big enough where your candidate should have acknowledged it. You can’t have it both ways.

      • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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        8 hours ago

        To be honest, there is a lot of blame to be cast on the Dem leadership as well as the voters. They managed to run one of the most uninspiring campaigns of all time.

        • endeavor@sopuli.xyz
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          1 hour ago

          Americans are not the dumbest mf around because you voted a felon and the man who attempted a coup into office knowing full ell us has literally no measures to make him ever leave.

          You are the dumbest mf around since you blame the other campaign for being uninspiring.

          It was the most important election in US history: a literal felon who attempted a coup and was somehow not hanged for it vs a candidate.

        • Nightwatch Admin@feddit.nl
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          2 hours ago

          Yeah no. Even if the choice had been a blabbering idiot with a Napoleon identity crisis and a beany with propellor for a hat…. then still you don’t vote for a grifting fascist antichrist . It’s really not that hard.

        • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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          6 hours ago

          Nah, they gave voters plenty to be hopeful about but none of them actually want that future. The choice was pretty damn clear.

          • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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            6 hours ago

            What would the second Biden/Harris admin have done that the first wouldn’t have? Actual functioning healthcare? They didn’t even say they were aiming for that.

            Look, I’m not saying the Dems weren’t the less bad choice, I’m not even saying that voters should have been more active, but what happened was that Dems weren’t able to turn out the vote because they alienated some of their electorate. Trump mostly didn’t gain or lose voters.

            And it’s quite a shit take to have it out for “Gaza single issue voters”, when you ask them to be “no fascism single issue voters”. Some people have different sets of values, almost nobody wants to live in a dictatorship, but aside from a few outliers like Lina Khan, the Dems just didn’t work for the people.

            And stepping back, it was not even the current Dems’ fault mainly. It’s the entire political establishment of the past decades letting the system slide into this, inch by inch. It’s every time some rich guy didn’t get arrested for his shenanigans, every little slip where money trumped morals and laws. This is the result.

            Imagine, just imagine, if the ICE threw the illegal immigrant Musk out like they do with brown people. Or if the IRS wasn’t underfunded for decades. And I know that it’s mostly the ghoulish machinations of the GOP that’s to blame for that, but I never saw a Dem presidential candidate campaign on “law and order for the wealthy as well” or “make megacorps pay their due taxes”, or even “let’s catch up to the rest of the world with healthcare”.

    • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      Sadly we would have embraced fascism whether voters elected Trump or Harris/Biden, as we’ve seen with the sentiment towards Palestinians.

      With the former, it’s fascism. With the latter, it’s fascism-lite.

      Ultimately, we’re going to reach a chilling point that will probably demand a WWIII. When that comes has probably now been accelerated due to Trump winning.

      Sanders was our key to fighting fascism. Sadly Obama, Clinton, and Biden all kneecapped him in favor of billionaires and the status quo while claiming no responsibility for the seeds they sewed.

    • casmael@lemm.ee
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      12 hours ago

      To be fair they didn’t actually elect trump, the election was clearly rigged

        • casmael@lemm.ee
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          8 hours ago

          I don’t understand why folks downvote comments pointing this out to be honest. Like bro, the man literally fucking said it out loud what more do you want. He’s quoted as saying a) Elon musk in some way stuffed the electronic ballots in PA and b) he (ie trump) wouldn’t be president if the election had not been rigged what more do you want bro serious question I’m fucking interested

          • Fizz@lemmy.nz
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            6 hours ago

            Because the statement is so stupid there is no way its true. He says Elon knows more about these voting computers than anyone one else and was able to rig it. Obviously that statement is not true Elon knows nothing about voting machines.

            We can pretend to believe Trump just to hold his feet to the fire but he’s so slippery he will slip out and we will be left sitting here looking like idiots for believing the dumb claim.

          • Captainvaqina@sh.itjust.works
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            8 hours ago

            Honestly, masterful plan by the traitor’s handlers. They made sure that we couldn’t complain about a rigged 2024 election because of the bullshit they spread about the non-rigged 2020 one.

            I guess the Nazis win.

  • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Giving his family the last train car out of germany before the third reich shuts down the border.

    • Saleh@feddit.org
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      50 minutes ago

      Yeah sure, poor Hunter Biden is totally persecuted like the Jews and other minorities in Nazi Germany…

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      They may want do just that. Do anyone believe Trump will honor these pardons. Also are they even valid if they haven’t been charged with a crime.

      • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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        13 hours ago

        It’s not about whether or not he honors them. The effectiveness of those preemptive pardons can be adjudicated by the SC. But there’s a couple of considerations on that front:

        • will the SC concur that blanket pardons in advance of any charges are actually allowed?
        • will Trump want to challenge that, since it would potentially kneecap any effort he makes later in that regard?

        But also:

        • will Trump or the SC give a shit about the blatant hypocrisy and double standard if they do strike down this sort of thing from Biden, but let Trump do it? (IMO probably not)
        • if the SC gives a shit but Trump doesn’t, what’s to stop him using leverage and/or stochastic terrorism to help accelerate the conclusion of one or more justices’ tenure so he can slip someone more agreeable in?
        • will the judicial branch even exist in an independent fashion in 4 years?

        TL;DR: who fuckin knows at this point

      • iAmTheTot@sh.itjust.works
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        12 hours ago

        Their validity has never been constitutionally challenged. It’s not really been done much in the past, the notable example being Nixon and no one challenged that.

      • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Also are they even valid if they haven’t been charged with a crime.

        Accepting the pardon actually requires admitting to the crime. So yes, the pardon is valid because the person has to go “yes I did this thing, and accept that I’m being pardoned for it.” You can’t selectively accept only the latter half of the pardon. And that admission and subsequent pardon means the state can’t charge them in the future, because they already admitted to it and were pardoned for it despite that admission of guilt.

        But to your earlier point, there’s not much stopping Trump from trying to go after them anyways; The SCOTUS certainly won’t get in his way.

        • errer@lemmy.world
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          10 hours ago

          There’s also some period between issuing the pardon and accepting it where a pardon can be rescinded. I would think Biden already had all these people accept their pardons in advance though…

  • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    Sad. In “The Land of the Free” you should never have to do this. We are well and truly fucked if this tribalism isn’t put down. Cutting into our education has done irreparable damage.

  • Majorllama@lemmy.world
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    14 hours ago

    One last twist of the knife on your way out the door. Slick move sleepy Joe.

    Let’s not pretend like Trump won’t be pardoning his family of any and all crimes as well.

    • NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      I don’t think it’s quite the same thing when someone singles out your family and everyone that has “wronged them” politically, and threatens to hang them legally, and maybe even literally.

    • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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      13 hours ago

      The difference is that Trumps family are actually criminals. This is protecting family from blatant partisan witch hunts.

      • Majorllama@lemmy.world
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        13 hours ago

        “It’s different when we do it. We HAD to do it.”.

        Abuse of power is abuse of power. The Democrats can’t say they are the party of the just and fair when they are doing the exact same shit they condemn the right for doing.

        The Democrats will continue to lose if they try and play dodgeball with the Teflon Don. Nothing has stuck or ever will stick to that man and it’s almost entirely thanks to the Democrats in the first place. They should have chosen to eat it on the nose and double down on them being the party that doesn’t try and break rules for personal gain. At least then they would have a legitimate leg to stand on. But they didn’t. They tried to play Trumps game. And they lost. And they will continue to lose.

        I want to believe they will have learned anything from 2016-2024, but only time will tell. I suspect that when 2028 rolls around we will find out that the Democrats have still learned absolutely nothing. Based on my discussions with my left leaning friends and family its really not looking good for them in 2028.

        • takenaps@lemmy.world
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          9 hours ago

          From the beginning, Trump fed yall the bullshit of “it’s a witch hunt”. He responded this way to even the smallest of accusations. Now, yall have sainted him, and have placed him completely above reproach. He gets away with anything he wants, says it’s a witchhunt, & yall eat that shit up.

          • Majorllama@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            Unfortunately this is the Democrats fault at this point. A real boy who cried wolf situation. Y’all hated this man so much that you tried anything and everything to shut him down.

            All you did was make it so everyone stopped listening to what you had to say. People even tried to warn you about this approach after the 2016 election but you guys were the “is it me that’s out of touch? No it’s clearly them who is wrong” meme.

            I guess we all get to look forward to Republican rule forever since the Democrats are literally incapable of seeing how they contributed to this situation.

            • baines@lemmy.cafe
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              5 hours ago

              literal abusive behavior ‘look what you made me do’

              fucking tool

    • Ledivin@lemmy.world
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      14 hours ago

      One last twist of the knife on your way out the door.

      What? How does this harm you in any way? You’re aware that twisting the knife is something extremely painful and damaging, right?

      • Majorllama@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        I didn’t get what I voted for. But I’m not delusional like the majority of the Democrats are apparently.

        The first vote I could vote for was Obamas second term ( I was just a tad too young to vote for him the first time around) and I did so happily. Then is 2016 I voted for Hillary and was disappointed like many of you when Trump won.

        For the 2020 election I went registered as an independent because I no longer identified as a Democrat. I still have left leaning bias on the majority of issues but I could not identify with the Democrats anymore. I still voted for them, but I wasn’t happy about it. Like many that cycle I viewed Biden as the lesser of two evils.

        Now we get to 2024. I live in California. California was going blue no matter what. But I voted third party because I could not bring myself to vote for Kamala and the current Democratic party again. Just like I cannot bring myself to vote for the King Cheeto himself. My vote was simply a vote of protest for the current leaders of the Democratic party. They need to see that if they don’t change their approach going forward they are going to lose Democratic strong holds like California as well. This past election was one of the closest California has had in awhile. Clearly I am not the only person in my state disillusioned with how my old party has been doing things.

        I really really want them to put forward someone genuinely good in 2028, but I fear they learned all the wrong lessons for the last 10 years. Only time will tell I guess.