“As the Bidens choppered away in the presidential helicopter for the final time, several senior Democrats texted me their dismay with Biden’s last-minute, preemptive family pardons. While some liberals thought these were smart defensive moves, others were furious about the precedent it set for an outgoing Trump administration four years from now—and curious why members of Biden’s family the public had never heard of, such as his sister Val and her husband, John Owens, would need pardons in the first place. As one Biden appointee texted me, the family pardons gave “credence, as they packed their bags, to bogus ‘Biden crime family’ narratives the right is foaming at the mouth to pick up and drive. Mission accomplished!””