Joe Biden is considering using his presidential prerogatives to preemptively pardon several high-ranking officials threatened with impeachment by Republicans when Donald Trump returns to the White House, multiple US media outlets are reporting.

The Democratic president, who on Sunday pardoned his son, discussed with several of his advisers the possibility of using this constitutional privilege to protect other persons who are not being prosecuted or convicted of any crime.

The information was first reported by Politico on Wednesday and was later repeated by the New York Times and Washington Post and CBS, citing unnamed sources.

Among the people likely to be pardoned are Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former special adviser of the White House during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Liz Cheneya former Republican congressman who has clashed fiercely with Trump and Adam Schiffthe California Democratic congressman who drafted the first impeachment indictment of Trump in Congress.

According to CBS News, possible candidates are also retired general Mark MeeTrump’s former chief of staff, who later said the Republican is “a fascist from head to toe” and “the most dangerous man in the country.”

The president-elect has made no secret in recent months that he wants revenge on those he says “stole” his victory in the 2020 election. In September, he even threatened in a post on Truth Social that they would be sentenced to “heavy sentences” in prison.

End-of-term presidential pardons are a tradition in the US. Trump himself, on his last day in the White House, had pardoned 74 people, convicted of various crimes. But this privilege has never been used “preemptively”, as Joe Biden plans to do.