President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden, left, welcome incoming President-elect Donald Trump and Melania Trump at the White House ahead of the 60th inaugural ceremonies in Washington, D.C. 

The outgoing and incoming presidents both abused their pardon powers on Monday, undermining the rule of law and setting dangerous precedents that perpetuate America’s divisions.

President Joe Biden started the trouble by issuing preemptive pardons for five family members as well as former members of his administration. His rash action opens the door for future presidents to likewise immunize their families and staffs from merely theoretical prosecution by their successors — as though future presidents should be considered enemies whose actions must be defended against.

After his inauguration, President Donald Trump ended the day by giving clemency to everyone who had tried to keep him in power at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including those who had been convicted of seditious conspiracy. His reckless handout risks emboldening militias and others to commit future acts of barbarity in support of political aims. When such violence is tolerated, it happens more often.

Trump drew no distinction between the felons who had assaulted police officers and those who had trespassed the Capitol’s marble corridors. He has complained that the rioters’ sentences were unfair, though many of them were issued by judges Trump himself appointed during his first term. “Complete and unconditional” pardons were awarded to all but 14 people, the ones convicted of seditious conspiracy. Even those convicted criminals received commutations that freed them immediately.

Trump has painted a picture of the average Jan. 6 rioter as a harmless grandmother who happened to be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. In truth, the attackers injured more than 140 police officers. Nearly 400 of the rioters were charged with felony assault. Those convicted were not “hostages,” no matter how many times Trump says they were. They are people who committed violent acts against police. It strains credulity to view them otherwise.

Biden’s pardons are a different sort of affront to justice, to be sure. But they come with a sting when you recall that Biden campaigned for office as a defender of democratic norms. Now, he has ended his time in the White House by shattering an important one. After last month breaking his promise not to pardon his son Hunter, who was found guilty of serious tax and gun crimes, Biden on Monday preemptively pardoned brother James Biden and his wife Sara, brother Frank Biden, and sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband John Owens for any nonviolent federal crimes they might have committed since 2014 — seven years before Biden became president.

Biden said he felt compelled to act because he feared attacks against his family would continue. By doing so, however, he gave credence to Republican accusations that his family profited from his government service, going back to his time as vice president. If they did nothing wrong, they needed no pardons. If they committed crimes, why should they not be held accountable?

Biden also issued preemptive pardons to retired Gen. Mark A. Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Anthony S. Fauci, his former chief medical adviser; and members of the House select committee that investigated Jan. 6 as well as the police officers who testified at their hearings. “I believe in the rule of law,” Biden wrote. “But these are exceptional circumstances.” He used a similar construction — “I believe in the justice system, but …” — to justify pardoning his errant son.

This is not the way the rule of law works. It is always going to be possible to dream up “exceptional circumstances” to justify giving associates and family members get-out-of-jail-free cards. It is true that Trump has pledged vengeance and retribution against his perceived enemies, which have included Milley, Fauci, the House committee members and what he calls, without evidence, Biden’s “crime family.” It is also true that prosecutors can harass people without bringing charges, forcing them to incur significant legal costs. But the Constitution gives every defendant the right to a speedy trial before a jury of peers, the opportunity to avoid self-incrimination and to appeal. Trump has availed himself of these rights, and so can anyone he pursues.