A Delaware federal judge formally dismissed the case against President Biden's son, Hunter, this morning following the president's sweeping pardon.

Some legal analysts have expressed concerns that the president's pardon of his son gives President elect Trump a roadmap to protect his political allies.

Mr. Trump hinted on social media yesterday he would do so, saying, quote, Does the pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J6 hostages?

Kyle Cheney, Politico's senior legal affairs reporter, has been following the fallout of the president's pardon and the impact it could have on a second Trump term.

Kyle, welcome back.

Thanks for being with us.

Good to be with you.

Thanks for having.

Me.

So let me start with those January 6th cases here, which I know you've been following closely.

Just to bring people up to date.

So far, some 1500 people have been charged, more than 1500, nearly a thousand have pleaded guilty.

More than 600 have been sentenced to jail time.

So to this question, Kyle, what kind of impact could the Biden pardon for his son, Hunter, have on those cases?

I mean, in theory, it shouldn't have a connection.

But I think what you're seeing is a reaction from Trump's allies saying, look, if he's going to pardon his son basically for personal reasons, then then why shouldn't Donald Trump exercise his sweeping pardon authority in the same sort of political way?

Look, Trump has signaled that he plan to pardon many of these people, these January 6th defendants for months if it's a big part of his campaign.

But it does this emboldened him to go further and maybe make that pardon more expansive and more more complete for either the larger group or for the alleged crimes that they committed.

That's that's the question as to what the impact might be.

And you've been covering these cases so closely.

I mean, if some kind of blanket pardon like that was issued, what would be the impact?

How would that be perceived?

I mean, it would be fairly seismic.

And I do wonder I've written a bit about this, too, that that is Donald Trump going to pardon or somehow provide relief to the people who were accused of or pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers?

That's a that's a major question.

Donald Trump has not said a word about his his intentions for any specific sort of way since winning the election.

And so one of the questions is, is he prepared for the backlash and for the consequences of potentially exonerate or not exonerating but but pardoning or providing some kind of clemency to people who did attack cops that day.

And beyond, beyond the January 6th rioters.

Now, we know in the past Mr. Trump, when he was president, did use his broad powers for to pardon people who were close to him, even members of his family.

Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Ivanka Trump's father in law, Charles Kushner, as well.

We should note, though, those were all tied to specific cases and specific allegations of specific crimes that those pardons were linked to.

Does the sweeping nature of this pardon by President Biden, does that offer Mr. Trump's broader political powers for the future?

Now, look, he had that authority to begin with.

But the difference is here that Biden has sort of blazed the trail now.

This is an unprecedented pardon with the I mean, the exception is Richard Nixon.

But even Richard Nixon's pardon only covered his term in office.

The Hunter Biden pardon was far beyond that.

11 years of any conduct that may have been criminal, stuff that may not have even been unearthed at this point.

And so that's that's the really the crux of this.

It's not that Trump doesn't have that authority.

It's just that that authority has never been used that way with the one exception, arguably, of Richard Nixon.

And that creates a sort of permission structure that I think Trump could take advantage of, at least a political argument that, look, if Biden did this, why can't Donald Trump do this?

So it's it's worth noting there are still hundreds, I believe over 500 correct me if I'm wrong, January 6th cases still pending.

So back when Matt Gates was the nominee to be attorney general, we knew to some degree what direction those might take.

He had said that he was supportive of the rioters on January 6th.

He voiced that support for them a number of times.

He's withdrawn his nomination.

Pam Bondi is now the new nominee to be attorney general.

What would she mean and her leadership at the agency mean for the future of those January 6th cases?

That is a great question, and it's a question that I pondered and I still haven't really gotten the answer to, in part because she has said virtually nothing about January 6th, since January 6th.

I've asked, you know, about what her views are on it.

We've got no no answer there.

Matt Gates was a known quantity and he embraced certain conspiracy theories.

About January 6th, clearly was on the side of maximal clemency for this group of rioters and alleged rioters.

And Pam Bondi, There's an unknown quantity now.

People expect her to be loyal to Donald Trump and do what he wants her to do.

But the question is, she also has, you know, the history of the prosecutor and maybe a little bit more sympathetic to the prosecutors at the Justice Department who have put some of these people in jail.

And so we just don't know.

And maybe we'll find out if her conference.

Hearings.

January 6th investigations represented the largest criminal probe by the Department of Justice in the agency's history.

When you talk to your sources inside, how are they looking at all this, the potential for pardons and uncertain future ahead for the cases they're still working on?

I think there's just a pervasive sense of anxiety right now about the unknown.

They don't know, you know, how you know, is Donald Trump really going to follow through on these these promises to clean house there?

What does that look like?

Does anyone who worked on a January 6th case going to be fired?

Can he even do that?

And so I just think is a lot of anxiety there.

You know, Attorney General Garland has encouraged people to stay, not to even if they feel like they're you're going to run up against the new administration, that it's better to stay and try to help steer things in in a direction that they feel confident in as opposed to leave and, you know, let Donald Trump install his own people to do things in a very different way.

But so I just think anxiety and uncertainty is the best way to describe it at the moment.

As Kyle Cheney and Politico senior legal affairs reporter joining us tonight.

Kyle, thank you for your time.

Always good to see you.

Thanks for having me.