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Sen. Amy Klobuchar demanded pardon reform in direct response to President Biden granting sweeping clemency to his son Hunter Biden — and reportedly considering preemptive pardons to top allies.
“I think that we should have pardon reform,” Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said on MSNBC’s “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday. “It is a right of these presidents, but you could have a committee set up, you could have suggestions from a board, you could do all kinds of things. That’s what I’d like to see.”
The president issued a blanket pardon for his son that, in addition to two sentences he faced for a guilty plea to tax offenses and a conviction on gun offenses, wiped away any crimes Hunter may or may not have committed between 2014 and 2024.
That would have included his time earning up to $1 million per year sitting on the board of the natural gas company Burisma in Ukraine while his father oversaw that nation as part of his vice presidential portfolio — as well as other million-dollar business ventures with state-linked firms in China, at least one of which had Joe Biden penciled in for a 10% stake.
Biden, 82, and his staff had insisted throughout his presidency that he would not commute or pardon his son — with White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre claiming the president “wrestled” with the decision and had to be convinced by Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC).
“This is Clyburn’s words: ‘The president was reticent’ when he tried to encourage him to pardon Hunter,” Jean-Pierre told reporters during a Friday briefing. “I think that’s important to note.”
Klobuchar slammed the oldest-ever president for meddling in the justice system.
“I didn’t like the pardon of the president’s son,” she told Psaki, Biden’s previous White House press secretary, joining a chorus of other Democrats criticizing Biden for his sweeping pardon.
“I didn’t think that that was prudent, but I also am very concerned about this idea of the preemptive pardons. I am, of everyone, very concerned about what Trump is going to do with this Justice Department,” she added. “I actually spoke to Adam Schiff this weekend about this.”
Biden is reportedly weighing issuing preemptive pardons for Senator-elect Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), retired Gen. Mark Milley and former White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci out of fear that Trump’s second administration would seek retribution.
The deliberations about preemptive pardons have included White House officials like counsel Ed Siskel and chief of staff Jeff Zients — but the president himself has not been involved in the concrete discussions, Politico reported last week.
Preemptive pardoning would make waves as presidents usually issue pardons for specific crimes, indicating that his allies may need to be shielded from offenses for which they have yet to be charged.
Those who are issued the preemptive pardons could also reject Biden’s largesse. Klobuchar noted that Schiff “has publicly said that he does not want a preemptive pardon.”
“He believes that this is a nation of laws and that there are judges that make decisions all the time, including during the last Trump administration, including Republican appointees from many different administrations who did the right thing in many cases under the law,” she said.
“I don’t think the idea of a blanket pardon is some kind of good idea and I would recommend against it,” Schiff previously told reporters.
Jean-Pierre referenced Biden’s conversation with Clyburn several times more throughout Friday’s briefing, suggesting it was a major turning point for the president as he mulled going back on his promise to the American people.
Since Hunter’s pardon, Clyburn has also pushed the administration to dole out more pardons before the president leaves office.
“I also told them that I thought he ought to go even further, because all the noise about Jack Smith and Liz Cheney and Doctor Fauci and all of that,” Clyburn told reporters on Friday, referring to the special counsel prosecuting Trump’s federal cases and the former Republican Wyoming congresswoman who co-chaired the House Jan. 6 investigative committee.