Adam Schiff Explains Why He Doesn’t Want Biden’s ‘Unnecessary’ Preemptive Pardon Before Trump Takes Power

Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) explained why he does not want President Joe Biden to issue a pardon before President-elect Donald Trump reenters the White House.

Recently, Trump has claimed that he is open to the Department of Justice bringing charges against lawmakers who were apart of the January 6th Capitol riot Committee. Trump has also vowed to pardon some members of the riot on his first day in office.

During a Sunday morning interview on ABC’s This Week, the California lawmaker told anchor George Stephanopoulos he has communicated to the administration both publicly and privately that he does not want a pardon.

STEPHANOPOULOS: The president elect has also talked about prosecuting members of the January 6th committee like you. I know you said you don’t want a preemptive pardon from President Biden. Is that because you think the Trump administration will not actually prosecute?

SCHIFF: I don’t know what the Trump administration will do, but it’s for a couple of reasons. First, those of us on the committee are very proud of the work we did. We were doing vital, quintessential oversight of a violent attack on the Capitol. So I think it’s unnecessary. But second, the precedent of giving blanket pardons, preemptive blanket pardons on the way out of an administration, I think is a precedent we don’t want to set.

STEPHANOPOULOS: And you’ve communicated that to the president and President Biden.

SCHIFF: Communicated it both publicly and privately to the administration.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, however, thinks that Biden should seriously consider issuing blanket preemptive pardons for the January 6 committee and others, as he told NBC News on Sunday.

Watch the clip above via ABC News.