The extraordinary wave of pardons Monday — from Joe Biden as he left the White House and from Donald Trump as soon as he returned to it — demonstrate the potency of the Constitution’s pardon power, but also expose its perils,

Biden Monday issued several preemptive pardons, some to family members. Following the transition of power, Trump wielded his own clemency power.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday revoking the security clearance of 51 former intelligence officials who signed a 2020 letter arguing that emails from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden carried “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and that of his former national security adviser John Bolton.

President Trump took executive action Monday to start revoking the security clearances of his former national security adviser, John Bolton, and dozens of intelligence officials who signed a letter in 2020 claiming emails found on a laptop owned by Hunter Biden bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.

President Donald Trump revoked the security clearances of 50 former US intelligence officials who had cast doubt on conservative attacks on former President Joe Biden’s son, delivering on a campaign promise to exact retribution against what he sees as a “deep state” conspiracy against him.