Biden Contemplates "Preemptive Pardons"

America is now closely resembling the weird world of Joseph Heller's 1961 novel Catch-22.

There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.

-Joseph Heller, Catch-22.

It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22

Biden has made no decision on the preemptive pardons, the people familiar with the matter said, but the staffers are working to be prepared in case the president decides in favor of issuing them. …

The notion of sweeping preemptive pardons for offenses that have not yet been charged, and may never be, is largely untested. But most scholars agree the Constitution gives a president broad pardon powers that would be difficult to challenge legally.

Presidents generally issue pardons for specific crimes of which the defendant has already been found guilty. Biden’s recent pardon of his son was criticized in part because it was so sweeping, covering any federal crime Hunter Biden might have committed from 2014 to 2024, whether the offense is currently known or not.

—“White House weighs preemptive pardons for potential Trump targets,” Washington Post, Dec. 5, 2024

I believe I now understand that spirit that Joseph Heller expressed in his famous 1961 novel, Catch-22. Set on the Italian island of Pianosa in 1944, the novel tells the story of Captain John Yossarian, a bombardier in the Army Army Air Forces who cannot escape the impression that everyone around him and possibly everyone in the world has lost their minds.

For some time, the Biden Administration has reminded me of the weird world of Catch-22. The news that President Biden may be contemplating “preemptive pardons” of guys who have never been charged with crimes struck as a scenario straight out of the novel. I can imagine Joseph Heller having great fun with such a scenario. As he might have put it:

President Biden was concerned that Dr. Fauci could be prosecuted for crimes he didn’t commit, so he preemptively pardoned the good doctor for committing these crimes, even though he didn’t commit them.

“I know you didn’t commit the crimes that the incoming President Trump may accuse you of committing,” President Biden told Dr. Fauci. “To prevent you from being accused, I am going to pardon you for your commission of these crimes, even though you didn’t commit them.”

“Thank you, Mr. President,” Dr. Fauci replied.

“My only question for you is,” President Biden continued, “when didn’t you commit these crimes?”

“Are you asking me when I didn’t commit the crimes”? Fauci replied.

“Yes, when didn’t you commit them?”

“There was never a time when I did commit them, so I suppose I didn’t commit them during all of the time I’ve been alive,” Fauci explained.

“In that case, I will extend my pardon to include the span of your entire life when you didn’t commit these crimes for which I am pardoning you, even though you didn’t commit them.”

“Thank you, Mr. President, I appreciate you clemency,” Dr. Fauci said with an expression of real gratitude.