WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on his final morning in office issued preemptive pardons to lawmakers who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and police officers who testified in the inquiry, as well as two high-profile former government officials who have previously clashed with President-elect Donald Trump.

“Even when individuals have done nothing wrong — and in fact have done the right thing — and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage reputations and finances,” Biden said in a statement Monday.

“That is why I am exercising my authority under the Constitution to pardon General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the Members of Congress and staff who served on the Select Committee, and the U.S. Capitol and D.C. Metropolitan police officers who testified before the Select Committee,” he said.

The move, made hours before Trump’s inauguration for a second term, is seen as an attempt to shield some of Trump’s perceived political foes from threats of revenge by the incoming president.

And just minutes before Trump was slated to be sworn into a second term Monday, the White House announced that Biden had issued pardons for five family members: James B. Biden, Sara Jones Biden, Valerie Biden Owens, John T. Owens and Francis W. Biden. The outgoing president had issued a pardon last month to his son, Hunter Biden, who was convicted on federal felony gun and tax charges.

“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” Biden said in a statement.

Members of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack include prominent Trump critics such as Republican former Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois and California Democrat Adam B. Schiff, who is now a senator. Trump has previously suggested that members of the Jan. 6 select committee should “go to jail.”

In a report issued last month, Republicans on the House Administration Committee called for an FBI investigation into Cheney for her communications with former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, who was a high-profile witness for the select committee.

“I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But these are exceptional circumstances, and I cannot in good conscience do nothing,” Biden said Monday.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., who served on the select committee, defended the panel’s work to reporters on Capitol Hill last week.

“We’ve done nothing other than our jobs. We have committed no offenses, and we have fulfilled our functions and indeed our duties as legislators,” Raskin said. “So if somebody wants to make that a crime, that’s a sign of their deviation from the rule of law.”

Steve Huefner, a law professor at the Ohio State University, said before Monday that members of Congress are normally protected by what’s called the “Speech or Debate Clause” of the Constitution. Courts have generally given that a “pretty broad ambit” to protect members against having to give testimony or face charges related to their work, he said.

The clause is meant to protect members for “exactly the kind of work” done by the select committee, he said.

“The notion that prosecutors or anybody else in the executive branch could begin to question members of Congress about the way in which they were performing a constitutional function of the legislative branch really sort of flies in the face of the Speech or Debate Clause,” Huefner said.

Huefner said comments in the House Administration Committee’s report, as well as by Trump’s FBI irector pick Kash Patel and others are “really quite disturbing” to the notion that Congress is an independent branch of the government that can investigate major issues.

“I do think that an executive branch that is out for vengeance against a member of Congress that it doesn’t like has lots of tools at its disposal to make life uncomfortable for that member of Congress or that former member of Congress, and that includes bringing the kinds of charges or prosecutions that the Speech or Debate Clause would immunize them against,” Huefner said. “Because even the fact that they have to then hire a lawyer and make arguments about the Speech or Debate Clause are not without some cost.”

Harry Dunn, a former Capitol Police officer who testified about his experience defending the Capitol before the Jan. 6 select committee, issued a statement Monday that he was “eternally grateful to President Joe Biden.”

“I wish this pardon weren’t necessary, but unfortunately, the political climate we are in now has made the need for one somewhat of a reality,” said Dunn, who was a campaign surrogate for Kamala Harris last year after losing a congressional primary in Maryland. “I, like all of the other public servants, was just doing my job and upholding my oath, and I will always honor that.”

Attorneys for Dunn and Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who also testified before the committee about his experiences during the attack, said in a statement that police officers heroically performed their job at the risk of their own lives on Jan. 6.

“These pardons were never sought nor was there any consultation with the White House,” Mark Zaid and David Laufman said. “It is disturbing as a matter of American history our clients are receiving pardons, but the continuing threats and attacks by the extreme right, along with the rewriting of the truth surrounding that day’s events, sadly justifies the decision.”

Zaid, in a social media post, noted that one Capitol Police officer who did not get a pardon is Brian Sicknick, who died the day after the attack, “because I represent his estate, rather than him as an individual, in civil litigation against Donald Trump for the events of January 6, 2021.”

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(Michael Macagnone and Justin Papp contributed to this report.)

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