According to Ex Parte Garland, 71 U.S. 333 (1866), the President’s authority to pardon is unlimited except in cases of impeachment, extending to every offense known to the law and able to be exercised either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.”
At the Virginia Ratifying Convention, the delegate George Mason argued against ratification of the Constitution partly on the grounds that “the President ought not to have the power of pardoning, because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself.” (wikipedia)
“A pardon is an expression of the President’s forgiveness and ordinarily is granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence. It does not signify innocence.” – Office of the Pardon Attorney, August 8, 2024.
In January 2001, President (Bill) Clinton pardoned his brother Roger for a conviction of cocaine possession and drug-trafficking. He also pardoned Marc Rich’s conviction for tax evasion, wire fraud, racketeering, and making oil deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. Rich’s ex-wife had made large donations to the Democratic Party – a common factor in presidential pardons by both Parties.
Most of Obama’s pardons were for drug dealers.
Trump pardoned Charles Kushner – a fellow NYC real estate developer – who had been convicted of tax evasion and witness tampering – then nominated him to be ambassador to France in December 2024. Charles’ son, Jared Kushner’s, relationship as Trump’s “confidant” and son-in-law compares Kushner to Hunter Biden regarding influence peddling. “After her father was elected president, global sales of Ivanka Trump merchandise surged. On April 6, 2017, the same day Kushner and Ivanka dined with Chinese president Xi Jinping and his wife dined at Mar-a-Lago, the Chinese government provisionally approved three new trademarks for the Ivanka Trump brand giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka Trump brand jewelry, bags, and spa services in the world’s second-largest market.” (wikipedia)
President Nixon interceded on Lt. Calley‘s behalf during his court-martial for mass murder at My Lai and conducted a public campaign in support of the America’s largest mass murderer – only it was of hundreds of Vietnamese old men, women and children so it was supported by the ethnocentric American public. (see:
In 1830, President Andrew Jackson pardoned George Wilson for robbing a federal mail carrier. Wilson, incredibly, declined the pardon and was hanged! (see: cbmcint.com; The Man Who; Feb. 9, 2015). This was probably one of the few legitimately fair pardons given by any president without the applicant having any political connections to exert influence toward granting of a pardon.
“The constitutionality of open pardons has never been judicially tested in the Supreme Court and is open to question.” (wikipedia) I can’t think of a better time for such a judicial test as now.
If Congress is truly fed up with a “two-tiered justice system,” they can begin in no better place than by reforming presidential pardons.
But that would put them all at risk.
Instead, be honest and change “Equal Justice Under the Law” above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court to “It’s not what you do, But who you know.”
And, since the Capital police officer who murdered the J6 vet isn’t going to prison, pray the J6 demonstrators aren’t forgotten in the first 100 days of “MAGA.”
