WASHINGTON — A day that began with the outgoing president’s pardon of lawmakers and his own family ended with the incoming president’s pardon of supporters who violently stormed the U.S. Capitol four years ago.

The clemency grants by departing President Joe Biden and new President Donald Trump — one benefiting uncharged people not accused of wrongdoing, the other aiding rioters convicted of violent felonies — are vastly different in scope, impact and their meaning.

But the remarkable flex of executive authority in a 12-hour span also shows the men’s deeply rooted suspicion of one another, with both signaling to their supporters that the tall pillars of the criminal justice system — facts, evidence and law — could not be trusted as foundational principles in each other’s administrations.

“It was a sad day for Lady Justice no matter which side of the political spectrum you’re on,” said John Fishwick Jr., a former U.S. attorney in Virginia during the Obama administration. “In alternative ways, both Biden and Trump were sending the same message. Trump was saying it was a corrupt system the last four years, and Biden was saying it’s about to be a corrupt system. And that’s a horrible message.”

In pardoning his siblings and their spouses in one of his final actions in office, Biden said his family had been “subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics.” He said he had “no reason to believe these attacks will end,” a similar rationale he cited when pardoning his son Hunter in December for tax and gun crimes despite having pledged not to.

He also pardoned Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — all considered potential targets of investigation in a Trump administration despite no public evidence of any criminal behavior. Trump’s pick for FBI director, Kash Patel, has for instance singled out Fauci as someone deserving of investigation and prosecution over the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even as Biden said he believed in the rule of law and was “optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics,” he acknowledged that “exceptional circumstances” compelled him to act.

That wobbly faith in the criminal justice system under Trump’s watch appears to mirror the American public’s perspective.

About half of Americans are “not very” or “not at all” confident that the Justice Department, the FBI or the Supreme Court will act in a fair and nonpartisan manner during Trump’s second term.