The pardon power is traditionally viewed as an instrument of mercy and justice, a way to right wrongs that the legal system has not otherwise …
The pardon power is traditionally viewed as an instrument of mercy and justice, a way to right wrongs that the legal system has not otherwise corrected. It is now abundantly clear that, for President Donald Trump, the pardon power is just another avenue for corruption. Trump spent the past four years perfecting his ability to use the presidency to benefit himself and his allies. That includes steering those who seek to curry favor with him, from foreign governments to industry groups to political allies, to spend vast sums of money at the properties from which he still profits; co-opting the powers of the federal government to support his reelection campaign, often illegally; and pursuing countless policy initiatives that benefit his friends, customers and supporters. He enthusiastically subverted the justice system to benefit his friends and harm his perceived enemies, pushing Attorney General William Barr to undermine the Mueller report and undercut the prosecution and sentencing of allies like Michael Flynn and Roger Stone while urging ever more investigations of the origins of the Russia investigation and of his political rival, President-elect Joe Biden. It was all but inevitable that the pardon power, a profound and largely unlimited authority given to the president by the Constitution, would be the next area for abuse. And abuse it Trump has. The set of pardons announced late Tuesday, and a new round Wednesday night, make the craven corruption painfully apparent. Trump had already commuted Stone’s sentence and pardoned Flynn, even though both lied to investigators looking into Russian interference in the 2016 election. On Tuesday, Trump pardoned two more people convicted of lying to those investigators. On Wednesday, he added a full pardon for Stone and a pardon for former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who had been convicted of financial fraud and obstruction coming out of the Mueller investigation. This was an investigation that implicated our national security and indeed the sanctity of our democracy; lying about it is a big deal.
