��������Ƶ

WASHINGTON: Outgoing President Joe Biden issued preemptive pardons on Monday for several of his immediate family members and people that incoming President Donald Trump has targeted for retaliation, including Republican former lawmaker Liz Cheney and Mark Milley, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The pardons, issued in Biden’s last hours as president, cover the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the US Capitol by Trump supporters, as well as all lawmakers, including Cheney, who served on the congressional committee and police officers who testified before it. They also covered Anthony Fauci, who served as White House chief medical adviser during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Just before he handed over the office to Trump on Monday, Biden also pardoned five members of his family, saying he wanted to protect them from politically motivated investigations.
He also commuted the life sentence imposed on Native American activist Leonard Peltier, over the objections of his own law enforcement officials including his FBI director. Peltier will serve the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.
Trump, who was sworn in as president at noon, has repeatedly called for the prosecution of his perceived enemies since winning the White House in November.
Biden praised public servants as the “lifeblood of our democracy.” Without mentioning Trump, he expressed alarm that some of them were subjected to threats and intimidation for doing their job.
“These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions,” Biden said in a statement.
Biden’s last pardons included his siblings — James Biden, Frank Biden and Valerie Biden Owens — as well as their spouses, John Owens and Sara Biden.
“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” Biden said. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
Speaking at the Capitol after his swearing-in, Trump questioned Biden’s pardons of Cheney and Milley, referring to “pardons of people that were very, very guilty of very bad crimes, like the unselect committee of political thugs.”
“I think it was unfortunate that he did that,” Trump said of Biden’s last-minute pardons of his family members.
In December, Biden pardoned his son Hunter after repeatedly saying he would not. Hunter is a recovering drug addict who became a target of Republicans and pleaded guilty to tax violations and was convicted on firearms-related charges.
Biden commuted the life sentence imposed Peltier, 80, who has been imprisoned for nearly five decades for the 1975 killings of two FBI agents. The move came over long-time FBI opposition.
Former FBI director Christopher Wray sent Biden a letter on Jan. 10 expressing his “vehement and steadfast opposition” to the commutation of Peltier’s sentence. “Granting Peltier any relief from his conviction or sentence is wholly unjustified and would be an affront to the rule of law,” Wray said.
The US Constitution gives a president broad pardon powers for federal offenses. While pardons are typically given to people who have been prosecuted, they can cover conduct that has not resulted in legal proceedings.
Trump in December backed a call for the FBI to investigate Cheney over her role in leading Congress’ probe of the Jan. 6 assault.
Cheney and Democratic Representative Bennie Thompson, the committee’s vice chairs, expressed gratitude to Biden for recognizing the threats and harassment they and their families have endured.
“We have been pardoned today not for breaking the law but for upholding it,” they said in a statement.
Fauci often clashed with Trump during the pandemic, and Trump’s supporters have continued to attack the former senior health official.
Fauci told Reuters the White House had reached out about the issue a month ago and he had not sought the pardon. “I appreciate the president reaching out and trying to protect me from baseless accusations,” Fauci said. “I’ve done nothing wrong and this is no admission of any guilt.”
Milley, who was Trump’s top military adviser between 2019 and early 2021, said in a statement he was “deeply grateful” for Biden’s pardon.

‘EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES’
Trump’s rivalry with Milley ran deep.
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack, Milley called Beijing to reassure China of US stability. Trump, in a social media post, described the phone call as “an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH.”
Some of Trump’s supporters, seeing Milley as disloyal, demanded he be called back to active duty and tried for treason.
Milley took a veiled jab at Trump during his 2023 retirement speech, saying US troops take an oath to the US Constitution and not a “wannabe dictator.”
Trump later in the day lashed out at him with a series of insults, calling Milley “slow moving and thinking” and a “moron.”
Milley was quoted in the book “War” by Bob Woodward, published last year, calling Trump “fascist to the core.” Trump’s allies have targeted him for perceived disloyalty to Trump.
Reuters reported in November that the Trump transition team was drawing up a list of military officers to be fired, citing perceived connections to Milley.
Pete Hegseth, Trump’s pick to lead the Pentagon, repeatedly lashed out at Milley in his latest book, using profanities.
Biden praised both Milley and Fauci as longtime dedicated public servants who have defended democracy and saved lives. He said the select committee established to investigate the Jan. 6 attack had fulfilled its mission with integrity.
Without identifying the individuals, he pardoned all members of Congress who served on the panel, their staff and the US Capitol and Washington, D.C., police officers who testified before the committee.
Biden said that those pardoned had done nothing wrong, but that simply being investigated or prosecuted could harm reputations and finances.
“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” he said. “But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing.”

WASHINGTON: Where in the world is Melania Trump? Back in Washington in a sharply tailored outfit that exudes international woman of mystery as her husband once again becomes president of the United States.
Wearing a long navy coat and matching wide-brimmed hat — which shielded her eyes in most photos and hindered her commander-in-chief husband’s attempts to give her a peck before his swearing-in — Melania’s fit drew snark on social media and a flurry of comparisons to a 1980s video game character.
“Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego?” quipped the Internet, referring to the franchise that spun off into a popular 1990s geography game show for kids, and featured a criminal mastermind dressed in a long, carmine trench coat and eye-obscuring fedora.
Melania Trump’s coat and skirt were silk wool Adam Lippes, an independent American designer based in New York, an ensemble paired with an ivory blouse tightly wrapped at the Slovenian-born former model’s neck.
“The tradition of the presidential inauguration embodies the beauty of American democracy and today we had the honor to dress our first lady, Mrs. Melania Trump,” said Lippes in a statement that emphasized American manufacturing over political ideology.
“Mrs. Trump’s outfit was created by some of America’s finest craftsmen and I take great pride in showing such work to the world.”
The hat was by New York milliner Eric Javits.
“She cut the figure of a mafia widow or high-ranking member of an obscure religious order, and a bit of ‘My Fair Lady,’ wrote Rachel Tashjian, style critic for The Washington Post.
American first ladies don’t get much of a voice — but their sartorial choices are broadcast to the world and scrutinized for subtext and statements.
The late Rosalynn Carter, for example, drew strong reactions by wearing a dress she had already worn — gasp! — when her husband Jimmy was inaugurated in 1977.
The point was to show empathy for the economic struggles of Americans — but sometimes what the people really want is aspirational glamor.
In recent years first ladies have routinely turned to independent designers for inaugural events: in 2021, Jill Biden wore a sparkling blue coat-and-dress combo by Markarian, a small brand in New York.
Michelle Obama made waves in 2009 in a lemon-colored outfit by Isabel Toledo, wearing Thom Browne at her husband’s second swearing-in. She wore gowns by Jason Wu to both series of inaugural balls.
Melania Trump, for her part, channeled Jackie Kennedy to kick off her first turn in the White House, wearing Ralph Lauren — a heritage-brand favorite on both sides of the political aisle — to the daytime events in 2017.
She swapped her powder-blue cashmere dress and matching asymmetrical bolero jacket with opera gloves for a silk crepe gown by Herve Pierre that year, both looks that signaled a sense of buoyancy as she began her new role as a political wife.
Her shadowy-chic 2025 look marks a sharp departure as she enters tenure two.
“For her second round as first lady, the fashion game — the tool she brandishes most often and most forcefully, even if the public sometimes struggles to divine her sartorial messages — is likely to be one of steely, precise armor, of clothes with brash and exacting tailoring,” wrote the Post’s Tashjian.
“For the past year, she has worn a wardrobe of mostly black, but this does not seem intended to make her disappear into the background.”