Outgoing President Joe Biden and his White House team are considering issuing preemptive pardons to protect those they believe could be targeted for retaliation by President-elect Donald Trump.

The move is being discussed primarily among White House lawyers, but the president has also spoken to some of his advisers about the possible measure, two sources said, according to the Associated Press.

No decision has been made on the matter yet, and Biden could still choose not to issue a preemptive pardon.

Pardons are typically granted to those who have been accused of a specific crime and to those who have already been convicted. But Biden’s White House is exploring the possibility of pardoning people who have not been investigated or charged.

The Biden administration fears that Trump and his associates could launch baseless investigations that would harm the reputations and finances of their targets. Using pardons to prevent investigations and prosecutions would significantly expand the way the pardon power is used.

Some people close to Biden fear this could lead to an even broader use of similar pardons. from Trump. Concerns have also been raised that issuing preemptive pardons would lead to allegations that recipients had committed troubling acts that would have required immunity to avoid prosecution.

Among those who could receive a preemptive pardon is former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci. He played a large role in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic but has become a target for conservatives outraged by mask mandates and vaccination efforts.

Other recipients could include witnesses in Trump’s trials, both criminal and civil, as well as Biden administration officials who have angered Trump and his aides. Trump baselessly declared last year that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, had committed treason and should be executed. Milley later responded that he was taking precautions for his safety.

“He’s going to start throwing people in prison and I would be at the top of the list,” Milley, who called Trump “fascist to the core,” told The Atlantic in a profile of the four-star general.

A source told the AP that some former officials had contacted the Biden White House seeking protection ahead of Trump’s inauguration next month.

These latest developments follow Biden’s moves to pardon his son Hunter after he was convicted of federal gun and tax crimes. Biden opted for a wide-ranging pardon, including for every possible federal crime over an 11-year period. The president feared that Trump and his allies would pursue his son for other crimes to strike back.

The Hunter pardon could be a model for other pardons issued by Biden before his departure from the White House.

Trump aides also considered a preemptive pardon of the then-president and his supporters after they attempted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which ended with the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.

In 1974, President Gerald Ford granted his predecessor, the disgraced Richard Nixon, a “full, free and unrestricted pardon” following the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s resignation. The pardon statement said Ford believed a possible trial would “spark a protracted and contentious debate about the appropriateness of further punishment and humiliation of a man who has already paid the unprecedented penalty of forfeiting the highest elected office in the United States.” .”

Politico It was initially reported that Biden was considering preemptive pardons.

Richard Painter, a Trump critic and ethics lawyer in George W. Bush’s White House, told the AP that he reluctantly supported the use of preemptive pardons, hoping it would be “clean” for Trump and pressure him to do so , to focus on governing rather than wasting time chasing after his targets for retribution.

“It’s not an ideal situation at all,” he said. “At this point we are faced with a lot of bad options.”

But Painter also pointed out that “there could be blatantly illegal behavior in the next four years and he (Trump) may pardon his people before he leaves office.”

Painter added: But if Trump “is going to do that, he’s going to do it anyway, regardless of what Biden does.”