Among the many alarms being sounded about Trump’s hypothetical second administration is his potential abuse of the pardon power. Last week, The New York Times detailed the former president’s January 2021 commutation for Jonathan Braun, an offender who received clemency along with many other convicted felons on Trump’s last day in office.
Clemency encompasses both pardons, which amount to forgiveness for one’s crime, and commutations, or a reduction in the length of a sentence of imprisonment.
Clemency encompasses both pardons, which amount to forgiveness for one’s crime, and commutations, or a reduction in the length of a sentence of imprisonment. Trump doled out plenty of both. The president alone has the power to grant pardons, a dramatic show of forgiveness in the interest of the public good. This solemn responsibility was absolutely not designed to reward allies or advance personal agendas. Abusing this power is an affront to the rule of law. Worse, it is an invitation to violence. In the hands of a Trump uninhibited by any possibility of running for re-election, the pardon power could create nightmare scenarios.
While other presidents have issued questionable pardons in the past, such as President Gerald Ford’s pardon of former President Richard Nixon and President Bill Clinton’s pardon of donor Marc Rich, none subverted the process like Trump. In contrast to Department of Justice norms, Trump sidestepped its Office of the Pardon Attorney and put the clemency portfolio into the hands of Jared Kushner, his son-in-law and senior adviser at the White House. One of Trump’s attorneys general, William Barr, acknowledged that “there were pardons being given without any vetting by the department.” Among those receiving pardons was Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner. The elder Kushner had been convicted for crimes that included extorting his own brother-in-law by hiring a prostitute to lure him into a sexual encounter, video recording the…
Read the full article here