In an effort to undo what the Biden administration did while the last president was in office, the current administration is cutting deep, taking on the president's pardons.
On May 13, the newly appointed pardon attorney for President Trump stated that one of his responsibilities will be to review the pardons that former President Joe Biden granted shortly before he left office in January, as The Daily Caller reported.
“I do think that the Biden pardons need some scrutiny. And they need scrutiny because we want pardons to matter and to be accepted and to be something that’s used correctly,” Ed Martin, the pardon attorney, told reporters during a press briefing in Washington.
“So I do think we’re going to take a hard look at how they went and what they did and if they’re, I don’t know, but null and void, I’m not sure how that operates.”
Former Wyoming Republican Liz Cheney was one of several recipients of pardons awarded by Vice President Joe Biden during his final hours in office. Pardons were granted for actions that did not result in charges against the individuals in question, raising more than a few eyebrows.
Individuals "do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions," Biden remarked at the time.
In March, Trump asserted that the pardons null and void on the grounds that they were signed using an autopen, which is a tool that allows someone to sign documents using preloaded signatures.
Even if the pardons were unreasonable, Martin said he did not believe that an autopen would render them null and void during his May 13 comments.
This came just a day before Martin's departure from his position as acting United States attorney for the District of Columbia.
Following loud and persistent opposition from several senators to Martin's candidacy to permanently assume the position of U.S. attorney, Trump appointed Martin pardon attorney and head of the DOJ's weaponization working group on May 8.
When questioned later on May 13 regarding Denise Cheung's resignation as chief of the DC Criminal Division of the US Attorney's Office, Martin stated that he had requested Cheung to investigate what he deemed as extraordinary behavior, specifically the transfer of $6.7 billion from the government to a nonprofit that had been established only six months earlier.
“That’s what you’re supposed to do, is pause, just like if the Biden pardons are unprecedented in their extent,” he said. “Right back to when Hunter Biden was whatever age you say: ‘That’s uncommon. We ought to take a look at that.'”
Even Biden's son, Hunter Biden, was pardoned by the former president.
The prosecution of individuals involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol, among other steps done during the Biden administration, are among the issues and arrests being examined by the weaponization working group, according to Martin.
Under his leadership, the group plans to increase its transparency regarding its progress and is considering opening a tip-sharing webpage, he said.
