The year was 2020, and the election was over. Donald Trump had lost the race, and rumors were swirling that he'd issue "preemptive pardons" for his family to prevent them from being targeted by Congress or the Biden Department of Justice. When asked about it on MSNBC, Representative Adam Schiff was asked if he'd ever heard of an innocent person getting a preemptive pardon.

His answer? "No." Four years later, Senator Adam Schiff was pardoned by the outgoing Bidein administration, along with Biden's family. To be fair, Schiff is not alone. He got his pardon along with everyone serving on the January 6 committee, including staff and police. If we look hard enough, it probably covers anyone who walked into the room during committee hearings; it's so broad.

Under the Fifth Amendment, you can't use a defendant's decision to invoke the right to remain silent against them. It's a constitutional right, and holding a right against someone is the wrong thing to do.

A pardon doesn't fall under that rubric, however. And a preemptive pardon falls under that even less so because there's an open question: why do you need a pardon? Adam Schiff may be totally innocent, but if Biden drops a pardon on Schiff's head, it's reasonable to question why that pardon needs to exist.

The pardon power is one of the few monarchial powers given to the executive branch under the Constitution. The president is the only person who can grant them; when he or she does, it is an unchallengeable decision. No court can overturn it, nor can any future president undo it. It's one of the most airtight powers of the president, which comes from the founder's ideas of a king.

Because it's such a strong power, it's fair for the public to criticize it. In this case, Biden went out pardoning his family and those who went after Trump in Congress. Biden nipped the capacity for transparency or accountability.

In regards to Biden's family, it's fair to assume some wrongdoing.

For instance, James Biden, Joe's brother, had already come under investigation by Biden's own Department of Justice over questions of impropriety in business dealings. We didn't get the dramatic whistleblowers in those cases that we did with Hunter Biden, but it's fair to ask if Biden was pushing his DOJ in any way, in the similar manner people accused him of doing with Hunter Biden's case.

When you connect Hunter and James Biden with everyone else, you start asking questions about the rest of the Biden family, too. Republicans in Congress are already asking whether or not James Biden lied to them under oath during related investigations.

Joe Biden pardoned his family starting on January 1, 2014. That's a very specific date that covers everything in the past decade. For Hunter Biden, this date made sense because it covered the beginning of his alleged influence peddling in Ukraine. With the rest of the Biden clan now pardoned, we have to ask what role they played in all this.

Biden is the one who would know. And he saw fit to pardon his family, which even Politico admits can't just be about Trump going after them. It's because there's very real smoke over the Biden family allegations. In a transparent country, Biden would be forced to allow the justice system and political order to handle things. With the pardons, he's shortchanged that process.

As Jonathan Turley notes, "In a strange way, it passed in Bidenworld as an honest moment. There were no claims of supporting an addicted son or dealing with a pending case. It was done in the final minutes because it was raw and obvious. There is no pretense or apology. Just good old-fashioned corruption Biden-style."

Biden's pardoning of his family and friends necessitated Trump's pardon on January 6. If the justice system is only convicting one side of the ledger and preventing any justice on the other, why are we seeking jail sentences? It's worth noting that this is not to excuse what happened on January 6 at all.

But how can you claim "no one is above the law" in those cases while very clearly showing favoritism in the other? Biden triggered a constitutional crisis on his way out and proved to be nothing more than a lawfare thug out for himself and his family. At no point did Joe Biden look out for America's best interests. It was always about Biden, which is why he was comfortable lying to the Amiernca people about his physical incapacity to do the job.

Everything about the Biden administration was corrupt, from top to bottom. He leaves a total disgrace and failure, and history can't save that.