02 December 2020

Pardon Abuse

The New York Times broke the story last night (link here) that Donald Trump is considering preemptive pardons for his three oldest children, his son-in-law, and his personal attorney.

Whilst the decision is supposedly based on a fear "that a Biden Justice Department might seek retribution against" Trump's children and son-in-law, that conveniently avoids the real reason Trump and other loyalists are concerned: they have good reason to believe, as we all do, that Trump's children and son-in-law committed actual crimes that warrant prosecution.

For his part, Trump's personal attorney, Rudolph Giuliani, is already known to be under criminal investigation on multiple fronts, some related to dirty tricks he committed for the President. He would not be the first Trump dirty trickster to be pardoned in thanks for his criminality and unquestioned loyalty.

Of course, it would be deeply corrupt for Trump to do this, abusing the pardon power for his own family's benefit. Unfortunately, because the federal pardon power is broadly allowed in the Constitution, there is almost nothing that can be done to stop him.

Fortunately, the silver lining to this sorry tale is the iron-clad legal precedent that a President cannot pardon state crimes. Given the Trump children's involvement in dodgy tax and real estate deals already under criminal investigation by state and city officials in New York, they potentially face serious criminal charges that their corrupt father and client can't make vanish.



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