President-elect Donald Trump's threats of revenge against "enemies from within" could prove unachievable if President Joe Biden takes unprecedented and immediate action, a legal expert argued Wednesday.
Attorney Paul Rosenzweig, a longtime critic of the president-elect, argued for the Atlantic that Biden might be able to protect some of the people Trump is most likely to target by preemptively issuing pardons.
"The risk of retribution is very real," wrote Rosenzweig. "One hallmark of Trump’s recently completed campaign was his regular calls for vengeance against his enemies."
During his campaign, Trump suggested that former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and former Joint Chiefs Chair Mark Milley should be executed or otherwise sent to face gunfire, Rosenzwieg noted.
"Meanwhile, Trump has identified his political opponents and the press as 'enemies of the people' and has threatened his perceived enemies with prosecution or punishment more than 100 times," he wrote.
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But Biden could frustrate any attempt to exact revenge by issuing pardons for the most at-risk people such as Adam Kinzinger and military leaders such as Jim Mattis, H. R. McMaster, and William McRaven, Rosenzweig argued.
Presidents have basically unlimited power to do this, Rosenzweig said.
Trump, indeed, pardoned many people in his first term who were prosecuted for obstructing investigations into his own conduct, and has repeatedly floated the idea of pardoning the Jan. 6 insurrectionists in his second term, the attorney noted.
Rosenzweig argued it was unlikely any of those perceived enemies would be found guilty in a court of law but a pardon would shut that down the process before it began.
Ultimately, Rosenzweig concluded, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have a duty to those who spoke out against the Republican presidential nominee.
"[They] have a moral and ethical obligation to do what they can to protect those who have taken a great risk trying to stop Trump," he wrote.
"If that means a further diminution of legal norms, that is unfortunate, but it is not Biden’s fault; the cause is Trump’s odious plans and those who support them."