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Pardons by Trump and Biden reveal distrust of each other and wobbly faith in criminal justice system

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Pardons by Trump and Biden reveal distrust of each other and wobbly faith in criminal justice system
News

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Pardons by Trump and Biden reveal distrust of each other and wobbly faith in criminal justice system

2025-01-22 23:58 Last Updated At:01-23 00:01

WASHINGTON (AP) — A day that began with the outgoing president's pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president's pardon of supporters who violently stormed the Capitol four years ago.

The clemency Monday by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump — one benefiting relatives and public servants not accused of criminal wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies — are vastly different in scope, impact and their meaning for the rule of law.

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FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, right, listens during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, right, listens during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appears before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - Retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appears before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during opening statements during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during opening statements during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

FILE - Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

File - President Joe Biden speaks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File )

File - President Joe Biden speaks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File )

Supporters of President Donald Trump stand with their flags in support of people convicted for their part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Supporters of President Donald Trump stand with their flags in support of people convicted for their part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order pardoning about 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order pardoning about 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

But the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men's deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with both signaling to their supporters that the tall pillars of the criminal justice system — facts, evidence and law — could not be trusted as foundational principles in each other's administrations.

“It was a sad day for Lady Justice no matter which side of the political spectrum you're on,” said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney in Virginia during the Obama administration. “In alternative ways, both Biden and Trump were sending the same message. Trump was saying it was a corrupt system the last four years, and Biden was saying it's about to be a corrupt system. And that's a horrible message.”

In pardoning his siblings and their spouses in one of his final actions in office, Biden said his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.” He said he had “no reason to believe these attacks will end," a similar rationale he cited when pardoning his son Hunter in December for tax and gun crimes despite having repeatedly pledged not to.

He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — all considered potential targets of investigation in a Trump administration despite no public evidence of any criminal behavior. Trump's pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has for instance singled out Fauci as someone deserving of investigation and prosecution over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The clemency reached beyond those who might have reason to fear retribution under Trump. In a move that went against the explicit urging of the recently-departed FBI Director Christopher Wray and angered law enforcement, Biden commuted the sentence of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier, who had been imprisoned for nearly half a century for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents.

Even as Biden said he believed in the rule of law and was “optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” he acknowledged that “exceptional circumstances” compelled him to act.

That wobbly faith in the criminal justice system under Trump's watch appears to mirror the American public's perspective.

About half of Americans are “not very” or “not at all” confident that the Justice Department, the FBI or the Supreme Court will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump’s second term. In each instance, roughly 3 in 10 are “somewhat” confident and about 2 in 10 are “extremely” or “very” confident, according to an AP-NORC poll from January.

While the outgoing Democratic resident was convinced his successor could not be trusted not to target his perceived adversaries, including his own relatives, the incoming Republican president seemed equally convinced the prior administration engaged in political persecution of his supporters.

Trump pardoned, commuted the prison sentences of or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes in Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021. His action far exceeded the forecasts of other Trump administration officials, who suggested the clemency grants would be narrower.

The clemency wiped out the largest investigation in Justice Department history, the beneficiaries including members of the mob of Trump supporters who violently attacked police officers with weapons like flag poles, bats and bear spray, as well as leaders of far-right extremist groups convicted of failed plots to keep the Republican in power.

Trump has cast the rioters as “hostages” and “patriots” despite the breadth of evidence accumulated by prosecutors and has complained that the cases were politically motivated despite no evidence of any coordination between the Justice Department and the White House.

“That’s breathtaking. This is a man who does not believe in the rule of law. He believes he can do as he pleases. He’s made that clear for many years,” said Chris Edelson, an assistant American University professor specializing in presidential powers.

He said he did not fault Biden for the preemptive pardons, given Trump's warnings of reprisal.

“It would be a lie or at the very least misleading for President Biden to assure Americans that they can trust the system,” Edelson said.

Questions about faith in the rule of law have taken center stage as Trump looks for the Senate to confirm both Patel and his attorney general pick, Pam Bondi, who during her confirmation hearing last week told senators that she would not play politics while also suggesting that the Justice Department over the last four years had become weaponized.

For critics of the pardons like Fishwick, the former U.S. attorney, the clemency risks adding to the misguided public perception that the criminal justice system is “rigged.”

“I think both Biden and Trump were using the pardon power as part of political statements," Fishwick said, "and that's not how the Founding Fathers envisioned them being implemented by the president.”

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, right, listens during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - President Donald Trump speaks as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, right, listens during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, Oct. 7, 2019. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appears before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - Retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appears before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

FILE - U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - U.S. Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, left, and Washington Metropolitan Police Department officer Daniel Hodges listen as the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol holds a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during opening statements during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, listens during opening statements during a Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill, Nov. 4, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

FILE - Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

File - President Joe Biden speaks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File )

File - President Joe Biden speaks at the International African American Museum in Charleston, S.C., Jan. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File )

Supporters of President Donald Trump stand with their flags in support of people convicted for their part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Supporters of President Donald Trump stand with their flags in support of people convicted for their part in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol at the DC Central Detention Facility in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order pardoning about 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Donald Trump signs an executive order pardoning about 1,500 defendants charged in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol in the Oval Office of the White House, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

MUGHRAQA, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli forces began withdrawing from a key Gaza corridor on Sunday, Israeli officials said, part of Israel's commitments under a tenuous ceasefire deal with Hamas that is moving ahead but faces a major test over whether the sides can negotiate its planned extension.

Israel agreed as part of the truce to remove its forces from the 4-mile (6-kilometer) Netzarim corridor, a strip of land that bisects northern Gaza from the south that Israel used as a military zone during the war.

At the start of the ceasefire last month, Israel began allowing Palestinians to cross Netzarim to head to their homes in the war-battered north, sending hundreds of thousands streaming across Gaza on foot and by car. The withdrawal of forces from the area will fulfill another commitment to the deal, which paused the 15-month war.

However, the sides appear to have made little progress on negotiating the deal's second phase, which is meant to extend the truce and lead to the release of more Israeli hostages held by Hamas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was sending a delegation to Qatar, a key mediator in talks between the sides, but the mission included low-level officials, sparking speculation that it won’t lead to a breakthrough in extending the truce. Netanyahu is also expected to convene a meeting of key Cabinet ministers this week on the second phase of the deal.

Separately on Sunday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said that a 23-year-old Palestinian woman who was eight months pregnant was fatally shot by Israeli gunfire in the northern occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops have been carrying out a broad operation.

Since it began on Jan. 19, the ceasefire deal has faced repeated obstacles and disagreements between the sides, underscoring its fragility. But it has held, raising hopes that the devastating war that led to seismic shifts in the Middle East may be headed toward an end.

On Sunday, cars heaped with belongings, including water tanks and suitcases, were seen heading north through a road that crosses Netzarim. Under the deal, Israel is supposed to allow the cars to cross through uninspected, and there did not appear to be troops in the vicinity of the road.

Hamas spokesperson Abdel Latif Al-Qanoua said the withdrawal showed Hamas had “forced the enemy to submit to our demands" and that it thwarted “Netanyahu’s illusion of achieving total victory.”

The Israeli officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss troop movement with the media, did not disclose how many soldiers were withdrawing. Troops currently remain along Gaza's borders with Israel and Egypt and a full withdrawal is expected to be negotiated in a later stage of the truce.

During the first 42-day phase of the ceasefire, Hamas is gradually releasing 33 Israeli hostages captured during its Oct. 7, 2023, attack in exchange for a pause in fighting, freedom for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and a flood of humanitarian aid to war-battered Gaza. The deal also stipulates that Israeli troops will pull back from populated areas of Gaza as well as the Netzarim corridor.

In the second phase, all remaining living hostages would be released in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and a “sustainable calm.” But details beyond that are unclear and repeated stumbling blocks throughout the first phase and the deep mistrust between the sides have cast doubt on whether they can nail down the extension.

Israel has said it won’t agree to a complete withdrawal from Gaza until Hamas’ military and political capabilities are eliminated. Hamas says it won’t hand over the last hostages until Israel removes all troops from the territory.

Netanyahu meanwhile is under heavy pressure from his far-right political allies to resume the war after the first phase so that Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack on Israelis in their history, can be defeated. He is also facing pressure from Israelis who are eager to see more hostages return home and want to deal to continue, especially after the gaunt appearances of the three male captives freed on Saturday stunned the nation.

Complicating things further is a proposal by U.S. President Donald Trump to relocate the population of Gaza and take ownership of the Palestinian territory. Israel has expressed openness to the idea while Hamas, the Palestinians and the broader Arab world have rejected it outright.

The suggested plan is saddled with moral, legal and practical obstacles. But it may have been proposed as a negotiation tactic by Trump, to try to ratchet up pressure on Hamas or as an opening gambit in a bargaining process aimed at securing a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia. That grand deal appeared to be rattled on Sunday as Saudi Arabia condemned remarks by Netanyahu who said Palestinians could create their state in that territory.

Saudi Arabia said his remarks “aim to divert attention from the successive crimes committed by the Israeli occupation against our Palestinian brothers in Gaza, including the ethnic cleansing they are being subjected to.”

In an interview Thursday with Israel’s Channel 14, Netanyahu said: “The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there.”

The war in Gaza, sparked by Hamas’ attack that killed 1,200 people and saw 250 taken hostage, has killed more than 47,000 Palestinians according to local health authorities who do not differentiate between fighters and noncombatants in their count. Vast parts of the territory have been obliterated in the fighting, leaving many Palestinians returning to damaged or destroyed homes.

Violence has surged in the West Bank throughout the war and has intensified in recent days with an Israeli military operation in the north of the territory. The shooting of the pregnant woman, Sundus Shalabi, happened in the Nur Shams urban refugee camp, a focal point of Israeli operations against Palestinian militants in the territory. The Palestinian Health Ministry also said that Shalabi’s husband was critically wounded by the gunfire.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israel’s Defense Minister Israel Katz announced on Sunday the expansion of the Israeli military operation, which started in the city of Jenin several weeks ago. He said the operation was meant to prevent Iran from establishing a foothold in the occupied West Bank.

Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writer Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates contributed to this report.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war

FILE - Israeli soldiers drive near the northern Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - Israeli soldiers drive near the northern Gaza Strip border in southern Israel, Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit, File)

FILE - Israeli soldiers wave to the camera from an APC as they cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)

FILE - Israeli soldiers wave to the camera from an APC as they cross from the Gaza Strip into Israel, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov, File)

Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

Palestinians are seen near destroyed buildings by Israeli bombardments inside the northern Gaza Strip as seen from southern Israel, Sunday, Feb. 9, 2025. (Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)

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