Washington, 20 January 2025 (dpa/MIA) - Outgoing US President Joe Biden pardoned several family members just minutes before his successor's inauguration.

He issued pardons to James B Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T Owens and Francis W. Biden.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence," he wrote.

"My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics," Biden wrote in a statement. "Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end."

He also pardoned Gerald G Lundergan and Ernest William Cromartie. He commuted the life sentence imposed on Leonard Peltier so that he serves the remainder of his sentence in home confinement.

Photo: MIA archive