Fauci, Schiff and Cheney considered a preemptive pardon from the Biden White House

President Biden’s White House is reportedly considering pre-emptive pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci, Sen.-elect Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo.

White House counsel Ed Siskel is arranging talks about possible pardons with several other senior Biden aides, including chief of staff Jeff Zients, Politico reported, citing senior Democrats familiar with the talks.

The president, who earlier this week granted his son Hunter a sweeping pardon for crimes committed or potential over the past 11 years, was reportedly not included in the deliberations, according to Politico.

The discussions centered on whether Fauci, Schiff or Cheney would even accept a preemptive pardon, which could indicate wrongdoing and intensify criticism from President-elect Trump’s team.

“I would urge the president not to do that,” Schiff told Politico. “I think it would seem defensive and unnecessary.”

Who else could Biden pardon after sparing Hunter from conviction?

Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability Special Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC on June 3. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Trump’s nomination of Kash Patel as the next FBI director has reportedly boosted talks about preemptive pardons amid concerns about possible impending investigations or indictments once the new administration takes power in January.

Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., who hosted Biden in battleground Pennsylvania before the election, called on the president to issue blanket pardons when announcing Patel’s nomination – but he did not name the intended recipients.

“By choosing Kash Patel as his FBI director, Trump has made it clear that he cares more about settling personal scores than protecting the American people or upholding the rule of law. Patel openly published an ‘enemies list’ in his book. Name people he and Trump want to investigate and prosecute — and target those who resisted Trump’s lies, abuse of power and baseless attempts to overturn the 2020 election The people they are targeting include police officers, military personnel and others who have spent their lives protecting this country. These patriots should not have to live in fear of political retaliation for doing the right thing .” President Biden will issue a blanket pardon to anyone unjustly targeted by this vindictive plan.”

Rep. Liz Cheney, vice chair of the special committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, looks on during the panel’s final public meeting on December 19, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

NY TIMES WARNES HUNTER BIDEN PARDON COULD GIVE TRUMP AMMO FOR JANUARY. 6 pardons will ‘tarnish’ Biden’s record

Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also spoke in favor of a preemptive pardon last week, noting that former President Gerald Ford granted one to Richard Nixon.

“If it’s clear by January 19th that (revenge) is his intent, then I would recommend to President Biden that he give people these preemptive pardons because that’s really what our country is going to need next year,” Markey said to WGBH.

Schiff and Cheney both chaired the Jan. 6 special committee that investigated the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., delivers remarks during the final meeting of the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on December 19, 2022. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is under renewed scrutiny this week as the House subcommittee examining the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic released a more than 500-page final report. The report – which found that COVID-19 most likely originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China – supported that Fauci “played a crucial role in disparaging the lab leak theory” in senior scientific circles and later the public in early 2020. . His congressional testimony before Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., the report said, misled the public about the National Institutes of Health’s funding of gain-of-function research in coronavirus labs .

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

It goes on to quote Fauci testifying that the 6-foot distancing rule imposed on Americans “just popped up, so to speak,” and did not meet scientific quality standards when he discussed the studies he and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control conducted and disease prevention were surveyed before the policy was announced. He also made a similarly vague statement when asked what science supports mask requirements in K-12 public schools.