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US President Joe Biden has pardoned his siblings and their spouses in his final minutes in office, saying his family had been "subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics".
"Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end," he said.
He issued a slew of pardons and commutations in the moments before leaving office, including for aides and allies that have been targeted by Donald Trump.
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The pardons were announced as Biden and others stood at the US Capitol as Donald Trump was sworn in as the 47th president.
It is an extraordinary use of the presidential powers for people who have not been charged with any crimes.
Biden's blanket pardons covered his brother James and his wife, Sara, his sister Valerie and her husband, John Owens, and his brother Francis.
"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence," Biden said in a statement.
Only hours earlier, Biden pardoned Dr Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the Capitol, in a bid to guard against potential revenge by the incoming Trump administration.
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The decision by Biden came after 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 US Capitol on January 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 offence," 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.
"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.
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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 became 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 January 6, 2021, insurrection.
Biden is also extending pardons to members and staff of the January 6 committee, including former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, both Republicans, as well as the US Capitol and DC Metropolitan police officers who testified before the committee.
Biden, an institutionalist, 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 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 2500 people convicted of non-violent drug offences.
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.
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