Welcome to POLITICO’s West Wing Playbook, your guide to the preparations, personnel decisions and policy deliberations of Donald Trump’s transition. POLITICO Pro subscribers receive a version of this newsletter first. Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Eli | Email Lauren | Email Lisa | Email Megan President JOE BIDEN may have just delivered his successor an unintentional early Christmas gift. Biden’s sweeping pardon of his son, HUNTER BIDEN, is poised to further embolden President-elect DONALD TRUMP, who has vowed to use his clemency powers to free Jan. 6 rioters and use the Justice Department to target enemies. Trump’s wide-ranging promises about what he will do at DOJ — including mass firings of government attorneys, investigating the Bidens and ousting Special Counsel JACK SMITH — are among his most controversial plans. But Biden’s move on Sunday could help give the president-elect, already bolstered by a decisive win over Vice President KAMALA HARRIS and the incoming GOP control of Congress, the political cover to move ahead with some of his most polarizing ideas, critics and allies of the incoming president argued. “This is just going to give him more ammunition,” said RICHARD PAINTER, an attorney who served as chief White House ethics lawyer under GEORGE W. BUSH and has since become a Trump critic. In a post on his social media site, Truth Social, on Sunday, Trump responded to the news by opening the door to freeing rioters who have been charged for storming the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — an idea he has floated before. “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?” he wrote. “Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Incoming White House press secretary KAROLINE LEAVITT said Trump “will make pardon decisions on a case-by-case basis for those who were denied due process and unfairly targeted by the justice system.” Issuing the pardon just ahead of the GOP’s January takeover of Washington is a concern for a growing number of Democrats, who say it could tarnish Biden’s legacy and set a poor ethical precedent. It could undercut the moral authority they have argued they have about not interfering in the judicial process. Colorado’s Democratic governor, JARED POLIS, was among the first to criticize the president, writing on X that he understands Biden’s desire “as a father” to help his son but he is “disappointed that he put his family ahead of the country.” “This is a bad precedent that could be abused by later Presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation,” he said.
On Capitol Hill, the move could make life harder for Democrats, who will be in the minority but are expected to make Trump’s ethics and his efforts at DOJ a major focus of criticism, as they did during his first term. Sens. GARY PETERS (D-Mich.), PETER WELCH (D-Vt.) and MICHAEL BENNET (D-Colo.) have also criticized the move, as have some House members. Still, some Biden’s allies have defended the move. Rep. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-Texas), a member of the House Oversight Committee, said on MSNBC Sunday that the handling of the Hunter Biden cases was “completely political” and criticized “anyone who wants to clutch their pearls” about the issue. White House press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said Biden “does believe in the justice system and the Department of Justice. And he also believes that his son was singled out politically.” Biden, in his statement defending his pardon, stressed that “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.” It was a surprisingly critical comment from a politician who has long publicly praised the independence of the judiciary.
Painter, the ethics lawyer, said Biden “should have just pardoned his son” without taking aim at the DOJ’s handling of the cases involving him, which were led by Special Counsel DAVID WEISS. “This is just going to feed the flames, and Trump’s going to make the same allegations against special prosecutors and DOJ, including Jack Smith,” he said. “All it does is tee up Trump to be able to make similar allegations against the Justice Department.” Others argue Trump was never going to be influenced by any precedent Biden leaves behind. “We never love to see a president pardon a family member,” said JORDAN LIBOWITZ, spokesperson for the nonprofit Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. But he isn’t worried about any Trump reverberations. “Trump, if you look at the four years he spent in office, rarely cared about political cover,” he said. “Trump is going to do what he is going to do, kind of regardless of what anyone in Washington thinks.” MESSAGE US — Are you KASH PATEL? We want to hear from you. And we’ll keep you anonymous! Email us at westwingtips@politico.com. Did someone forward this email to you? Subscribe here!
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