拜登赦免福奇、众议院 1 月 6 日委员会成员和米利，以防范特朗普可能采取的“报复”
【中美创新时报2025 年 1 月 20 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）乔·拜登总统赦免了安东尼·福奇博士、退役将军马克·米利和调查 1 月 6 日国会大厦袭击事件的众议院委员会成员，利用他任期最后几个小时的非凡权力，防范即将上任的特朗普政府可能采取的“报复”。美联社记者COLLEEN LONG 和 ZEKE MILLER对此作了下述报道。
拜登做出这一决定之前，唐纳德·特朗普曾警告说，他的敌人名单上满是那些在政治上与他作对的人，或者那些试图让他为推翻 2020 年选举失败的企图和他在 2021 年 1 月 6 日冲击美国国会大厦中所扮演的角色负责的人。特朗普挑选的内阁提名人支持他的选举谎言，并承诺惩罚那些参与调查他的人。
“发布这些赦免不应被误认为是承认任何个人参与了任何不法行为，接受赦免也不应被误解为承认任何罪行，”拜登在一份声明中说。“我们国家应该感谢这些公务员对我们国家的不懈承诺。”
总统在任期结束时给予赦免是一种惯例，但这些仁慈行为通常是提供给被判有罪的普通美国人。但拜登以最广泛和最未经检验的方式使用了这项权力：赦免那些甚至还没有接受调查的人。而接受赦免就意味着默认有罪或犯有错误，即使那些被赦免的人没有被正式指控犯有任何罪行。
“这些都是特殊情况，我不能凭良心什么也不做，”拜登说，并补充说，“即使个人没有做错任何事——事实上他们做了正确的事情——并最终被免罪，但仅仅被调查或起诉这一事实就会对声誉和财务造成不可挽回的损害。”
福奇担任美国国立卫生研究院国家过敏和传染病研究所所长近 40 年，并担任拜登的首席医疗顾问，直到 2022 年退休。他帮助协调了国家对 COVID-19 疫情的应对，并因拒绝支持特朗普毫无根据的指控而激怒了特朗普。他已成为右翼人士强烈仇恨和恶毒攻击的对象，他们指责他实施了口罩强制令和其他他们认为侵犯他们权利的政策，尽管成千上万的美国人正在丧生。
马克·米利 (Mark Milley) 是前参谋长联席会议主席，他称特朗普为法西斯主义者，并详细描述了特朗普在 2021 年 1 月 6 日致命叛乱期间的行为。
拜登还将赦免 1 月 6 日委员会的成员和工作人员，包括前众议员利兹·切尼 (Liz Cheney) 和亚当·金辛格 (Adam Kinzinger)（均为共和党人），以及在委员会作证的美国国会大厦和华盛顿特区大都会警察。
拜登是一位制度主义者，他承诺平稳过渡到下一届政府，邀请特朗普到白宫，并表示国家会好起来，尽管他在告别演讲中警告寡头政治正在壮大。多年来，他一直警告特朗普再次担任总统将对民主构成威胁。他决定打破政治常规，采取先发制人的赦免，就是出于这些担忧。
拜登创下了总统颁布个人赦免和减刑最多的纪录；周五，他宣布将为近 2,500 名非暴力毒品犯罪罪犯减刑。此前，就在特朗普就任前几周，他宣布将为 40 名联邦死囚中的 37 人减刑，将他们的刑罚改为终身监禁。特朗普是扩大死刑的直言不讳的支持者。在他的第一个任期内，特朗普在冠状病毒大流行期间主持了前所未有的一系列处决，共执行了 13 人。
题图：拜登总统于周日在南卡罗来纳州查尔斯顿皇家传教浸信会教堂的礼拜仪式上发表讲话，这是他任期的最后一天。CHERISS MAY/NYT
附原英文报道：
Biden pardons Fauci, members of House Jan. 6 committee, Milley in effort to guard against potential ‘revenge’ by Trump
By COLLEEN LONG and ZEKE MILLER The Associated Press,Updated January 20, 2025
President Biden spoke during a service at Royal Missionary Baptist Church in Charleston, S.C, on his last day in office on Sunday. CHERISS MAY/NYT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.
The decision by Biden comes after Donald Trump warned of an enemies list filled with those who have crossed him politically or sought to hold him accountable for his attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss and his role in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump has selected Cabinet nominees who backed his election lies and who have pledged to punish those involved in efforts to investigate him.
“The issuance of these 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,” Biden said in a statement. “Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country.”
It’s customary for a president to grant clemency at the end of his term, but those acts of mercy are usually offered to everyday Americans who have been convicted of crimes. But Biden has used the power in the broadest and most untested way possible: to pardon those who have not even been investigated yet. And with the acceptance comes a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, even though those who have been pardoned have not been formally accused of any crimes.
“These are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said, adding that “Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances.”
Fauci was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health for nearly 40 years and was Biden’s chief medical adviser until his retirement in 2022. He helped coordinate the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and raised the ire of Trump when he refused to back Trump’s unfounded claims. He has become a target of intense hatred and vitriol from people on the right, who blame him for mask mandates and other policies they believe infringed on their rights, even as tens of thousands of Americans were dying.
Mark Milley is the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and called Trump a fascist and detailed Trump’s conduct around the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.
Biden is also extending pardons to members and staff of the Jan. 6 committee, including former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
Biden, an institutionalist, has promised a smooth transition to the next administration, inviting Trump to the White House and saying that the nation will be OK, even as he warned during his farewell address of a growing oligarchy. He has spent years warning that Trump’s ascension to the presidency again would be a threat to democracy. His decision to break with political norms with the preemptive pardons was brought on by those concerns.
Biden has set the presidential record for most individual pardons and commutations issued; he announced on Friday he would commuting the sentences of almost 2,500 people convicted of nonviolent drug offenses. He previously announced he was commuting the sentences of 37 of the 40 people on federal death row, converting their punishments to life imprisonment just weeks before Trump, an outspoken proponent of expanding capital punishment, takes office. In his first term, Trump presided over an unprecedented spate of executions, 13, in a protracted timeline during the coronavirus pandemic.
