In an extraordinary move hours before leaving office on Monday, President Biden said he was issuing pardons to retired Gen. Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the members of Congress and staff who served on the January 6 committee, and others who he said were targets for “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions” by the incoming administration.

“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.

Biden said “exceptional circumstances” had prompted the pardons. “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,” he said.

Fauci was a leading figure leading the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fauci has been criticized by Trump who called him a “disaster” while in office and has been investigated by congressional Republicans.

Milley was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during Trump’s first term and later called him “fascist to the core” in a book by journalist Bob Woodward . Trump has said he should be executed.

Biden said the members of the January 6 committee — and law enforcement officials who testified before it — were doing their job to shed light on the insurrection attempted by a mob of Trump supporters in 2021.

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