“The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense,” Biden said in a statement. [More]
Looks like they may have just been outmaneuvered into a corner. Guilt will be obvious when, no longer eligible to plead the Fifth Amendment, the truth of what they did, which will be more damaging to the Democrats, comes out.
Biden’s opinion on this means as much as his opinion on the ERA Amendment — squat.
“This brings us to the differences between legislative immunity and a pardon. They are substantial. The latter carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it. The former has no such imputation or confession.”
Burdick v. United States, 236 U.S. 79, 94 (1915).
So per the Supreme Court, you can choose to accept or not accept a pardon. But if you accept it, you are confessing your guilt.