Former FBI Director James Comey said Thursday that he “never” considered asking former President Biden for a preemptive pardon before President Trump returned to office last year and wouldn’t have accepted one if given.
“I don’t know,” Comey responded after CNN’s Kasie Hunt asked him whether he thought Biden might have granted him one if requested. “I wouldn’t have accepted it.”
Comey, who has been indicted by Trump’s Justice Department twice, defended his stance against accepting presidential pardons by pointing to a century-old Supreme Court precedent that doing so carried an “imputation of guilt and acceptance of a confession of it.”
“It’s what consoled Gerald Ford when he pardoned Richard Nixon,” Comey said. “He carried a quote from the case in his wallet till the day he died, because it meant Nixon had admitted guilt.”
“And so, I’m not guilty. I am innocent, so I wouldn’t be accepting any pardons,” he added.
The U.S. Constitution gives a sitting president broad authority under Article 2 to grant pardons, clemency and commute individual sentences before, during or after a criminal conviction, excluding cases of impeachment. It is a power that has been regularly exercised by presidents throughout history.
Biden issued a slew of preemptive presidential pardons in the waning weeks of his term for members of his family, their spouses and other perceived political enemies of Trump’s, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and retired Gen. Mark Milley.
The former president faced intense criticism for those decisions, including from some fellow Democrats who argued the blanket pardon of his son Hunter Biden could undermine the party’s efforts to restore public trust in American institutions.
Comey declined to say Thursday whether he believed those individuals who accepted pardons from the prior administration were guilty of crimes, but he hoped they “thought about it carefully.”
The former FBI chief’s comments come as he faces two federal charges in North Carolina in connection with a since-deleted social media post of seashells arranged to read “86 47.”
The term “86” is widely used restaurant slang to mean to get rid of, discard or refuse service to someone or something, but federal prosecutors argued the cryptic message constituted a direct threat to the 47th president’s life.
Comey deleted the photo last year amid backlash, saying he was unaware that the numbers could carry a violent connotation and believed it was a “political message.”
It is the second time that the Justice Department has pursued charges against Comey under what critics see as a pressure campaign from Trump to investigate and prosecute his political foes.
Comey said that despite being targeted “obsessively” and “repeatedly” by the Trump administration, he would not be dissuaded from criticizing the president’s actions.
“I’m not afraid,” he said, echoing statements he shared after his second indictment. “I won’t talk about a case that’s pending, but I will not stop talking about the threats that this administration poses to the rule of law.”
