Washington, USA: David Maraniss, a veteran journalist at The Washington Post, criticized the newspaper’s editorial comparing the pardons issued by Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Maraniss, who has worked at the paper for nearly five decades, expressed his disappointment on BlueSky, calling the comparison between Biden’s pardons and Trump’s controversial pardons related to the January 6 Capitol attack “beyond the pale” and accusing the paper of losing its integrity.

The op-ed followed Trump’s recent pardons of around 1,500 individuals involved in the Capitol riot and 23 anti-abortion activists. Biden, in turn, granted pardons to two police officers convicted in a fatal 2020 shooting, along with preemptive pardons for several of his associates, including Dr. Anthony Fauci and General Mark Milley, to shield them from potential politically-motivated prosecutions. The pardons have sparked concerns about political violence and the rise of extremist groups.