Joe Biden pardoned his siblings and their spouses on his way out of the White House, saying Monday that his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.

Joe Biden’s preemptive pardons are a valid use of pardon power. But they break new ground as a shield for those the president seeks to protect, scholars say.

President Joe Biden has pardoned his siblings and their spouses, saying his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt him."