"My family and I are deeply grateful for the President's action today," Milley said in a statement to USA Today provided by a spokesperson.

The decision was an early salvo by the new administration against a military that President Trump has assailed for a variety of perceived offenses.

The former joint chiefs chairman received a pre-emptive pardon from Biden on Monday, just hours before he left office.

President Biden issued a preemptive pardon to Gen. Mark Milley on Monday, capping off a presidency marred by the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021.

With just hours remaining in office, the president issued the pardons to protect people Donald Trump had threatened.

It’s customary to grant clemency at the end of presidential terms, but such acts are traditionally offered to Americans who have been convicted of crimes.

A portrait of retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff who has feuded in highly public spats with President Trump, was taken down in the Pentagon on Monday. A

President Joe Biden issued a slew of pardons to pre-emptively protect former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Jan. 6 committee and police officers who testified before that panel.

Mark Milley, the former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will give the retired military official a shield against any action that President Trump might take against him amid their highly public feud.

Mark Milley's portrait as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was taken down from the Pentagon hallway where all of the paintings of the previous chairmen are located.

Pentagon officials on Monday removed a new portrait of former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark Milley within a couple of hours of Trump’s inauguration, an official said. The portrait,