In one of his last official acts, former President Joe Biden gave us a pardon-palooza on Monday. He issued protective, or “preemptive,” pardons for Dr. Anthony Fauci and Gen. Mark A. Milley, and amnesty for members of Congress who served on the Jan. 6 select committee, their staff and D.C. and U.S. Capitol police officers who testified before the committee.

Then, to the dismay of pretty much everyone, he pardoned five family members, including his brother James B. Biden and his wife, Sara Jones Biden; his sister, Valerie Biden Owens and her husband, John T. Owens; and his brother, Francis W. Biden.

The Fauci, Milley and Jan. 6 pardons are reasonable and predictable. The White House has signaled for weeks that they might be coming. As with the Hunter Biden pardon, these responded to what is unprecedented in American history: a winning presidential candidate running on a platform of promising to use the Justice Department, and the powers of the Oval Office in general, to take revenge on his perceived enemies.

Hunter Biden had already undergone criminal investigation by a U.S. Attorney in Delaware on President Trump’s watch during his first term. After his father became president, Attorney General Merrick Garland named a special counsel to pick up that probe, which produced indictments in two jurisdictions, one jury verdict and one guilty plea. Prosecutors determined that the most serious crimes they could prove beyond a reasonable doubt were the illegal non-payment of taxes (later repaid with interest), lying on a gun application about his drug addiction and criminally owning........

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