I don’t think it’s a good idea to delay the prosecutions. This is a common tactic of communists/criminals to avoid justice. “Let’s look to the future first, not the past, we can get back to this later.”. Then, after a few months have passed, “this is ancient history now, it’s too late to seek justice now, let’s focus on the future”. Then those people become a perpetual ruling class on the back of their ill gotten gains. This has happened in many former communist countries, with former communist party officials/communist secret service agents stealing state-owned assets in corrupt privatizations, or seizing secret service files for blackmail purposes, and becoming a shadow, de facto, underground governing class / ruling oligarchy, parallel to, above, and controlling formal government structures. Because no one held them to account.
If Trump allows these people to escape justice yet again - like he failed to imprison Hillary during his first term - they will come back to bite him, and they will come back to bite the rest of us, when Trump loses power again. This may be 4 years from now, or it may be sooner. They could assassinate him, they could take over the House or the Senate in 2 years’ time … they could do something else none of us can even think of.
The best time to cut off the head of the snake is now. There is no time like now.
While they should certainly also be prosecuted in State courts where appropriate, the crimes committed - illegal bioweapons development, genocide, crimes against humanity - are not ones that can or should be relegated to mere local jurisdictions for prosecution. They are federal and international crimes, and they should be pursued in federal and international courts. The head of state of one country - even the President of the United States - does not have the power to absolve anyone of responsibility for participating in a genocide which resulted in tens of millions of deaths across the globe.
I’m not a constitutional scholar, but I am sure there are things in the Constitution which limit the power of Presidential pardons. The pre-amble itself says “We the People of the United States … establish Justice … promote the general Welfare” It is not Justice to elevate certain people above the law (for this is what a blanket “pardon” is - it is not a pardon, for a specific criminal act of which one has been convicted and has expressed remorse for - it is the suspension of the rule of law in respect of one or more people) and it is not in the interest of general Welfare. Such blanket pardons may also fall foul of the Faithful Execution Clause (Article Two, Section 3: “… he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed …”). If the concept of blanket pre-emptive pardons were to hold water, the President could pre-emptively pardon everyone for all crimes committed, in the past, present or in the future, forever, the minute he takes office. That would plainly run contrary to his duty to faithfully execute the law, in fact it would totally subvert the law. So where does the line lie? I say pre-emptively pardoning people in the way Biden has done lies on the wrong side of this line.
Maybe someone can also explain to me how Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution applies in this situation: “The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.” Does that mean the Congress can declare a punishment for someone it deems to be a Traitor?
Wish Switzerland would do the same. Sigh.