Journalist Matt Taibbi said during an interview with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson on his podcast earlier this week that former President Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), and others could wind up backfiring under certain circumstances.
“The thing is, about these pardons, they’re a mistake. If you want to know what’s happening, they just made it a lot easier for us to find out,” Taibbi said regarding suspicions that Biden preemptively pardoned several individuals who likely were involved in some form of criminal activity.
After Carlson asked for an explanation, Taibbi said that according to legal experts he has spoken with, the pardons would not, for instance, allow the recipients to plead the Fifth Amendment if Congress called them to testify.
“Now, once the pardon’s delivered, the person can’t plead the Fifth. If they are brought before a grand jury, they can’t take the Fifth anymore, or if they’re brought before a congressional committee, they can’t evoke their right against self-incrimination, so they have to say something,” the journalist explained.
“And this is what’s so interesting because I’ve been talking to criminal defense attorneys, people who are former Senate investigators, some current Senate investigators, and they all kind of said the same thing,” he said. “It’s so illogical to give somebody a pardon if you’re trying to cover up things that the only reason you would really do it is if there are very serious crimes involved, right?
“So that’s a red flag for us. When we see somebody getting a pardon, we think, well, why would they do that unless there’s something really bad there, right?” Taibbi said. “So either it’s a mistake where they just stupidly made It easier for everybody to investigate, or there’s something we don’t know about [and] that is interesting.”
WATCH:
Taibbi isn’t alone in predicting that the preemptive pardons for Fauci, Cheney, and members of Joe Biden’s family might not protect them from all future legal actions.
