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Pardons

ZirconBlue said:
8. No pardon can be pre-emptive. Only for crimes that have been committed and convicted in the past.
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That is already the case.
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Then how does Ford's pardon of Nixon work? Or Carter's pardon of draft dodgers?
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I was referring to the 'crimes committed' part of the previous statement.

In other words, a president can say "I pardon person X for shooting someone yesterday", but they can't say "I pardon person X for shooting someone tomorrow".

Ford's pardon of Nixon was for crimes that occurred previously. He didn't list specific crimes, but they were only for things that occurred in a previous, specific time frame.

(Now, you also mentioned the issue of 'convicted in the past', but since someone already brought up the issue of conviction, I assumed you were referring to the 'commission of crime')
 
Trump's fans on the left (and libertarian right) have been encouraging/bribing him to pardon Assange (and Snowden, to a lesser degree). The implication being that doing so would represent a final revenge on the evil liberals, and in return, Assange fanatics would aggressively campaign to rehabilitate his image as a populist hero. I wonder if he'll do it.
 
trustbutverify said:
Trump's fans on the left (and libertarian right) have been encouraging/bribing him to pardon Assange (and Snowden, to a lesser degree). The implication being that doing so would represent a final revenge on the evil liberals, and in return, Assange fanatics would aggressively campaign to rehabilitate his image as a populist hero. I wonder if he'll do it.
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No way. Assange is nothing but a loose cannon now, who can't help but might hurt Republican branding. Anything released now would likely be from the R administration. Biden's crew is pretty boring. Same for Snowden. Real news is bad news for the political right.
 
Thermal said:
No way. Assange is nothing but a loose cannon now, who can't help but might hurt Republican branding. Anything released now would likely be from the R administration. Biden's crew is pretty boring. Same for Snowden. Real news is bad news for the political right.
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Why would Trump care about any of that? He couldn't care less for the political right or the Republican party. Assange (and his few remaining loyalists left at Wikileaks) would never distribute anything damaging to Trump... they're in love with him.
 
Trebuchet said:
It's 5:30 PM in DC and no pardons yet, as far as I know. Is he waiting til the evening news is over?
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The CNN chyron says it will be any moment now. But of course, knowing their penchant for keeping viewers on the hook, it could be up to a couple hours from now even if they know exactly when.
 
alfaniner said:
The CNN chyron says it will be any moment now. But of course, knowing their penchant for keeping viewers on the hook, it could be up to a couple hours from now even if they know exactly when.
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I'm surprised he is issuing the pardons today and not tomorrow. When we get the list, I'm guessing the audacity of some of those being pardoned will be substantial news.
 
I'm really curious if Trump issues any pardons for cover. Will there be any African Americans? Will there be anyone who is poor?
 
acbytesla said:
I'm really curious if Trump issues any pardons for cover. Will there be any African Americans? Will there be anyone who is poor?
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He seems to be planning pardons for a few rappers- all of them AA I believe.
 
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Thor 2 said:
Well I agree with your final line but have trouble with the first.

Why would a president be able to, with authority, assess that the guy was " prosecuted and convicted unjustly". Does the president have some omnicompetent capability?
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Well a lifetime mandatory sentence for a few ounces of marijuana and a scale would be an example of a wrong a POTUS could assess as wrong, times changing and all that.
 
ZirconBlue said:
We've seen Mitch's abuse of the Senates "Advise and Consent" powers over the last 12 years, so I have concerns there. If we're doing a Constitutional Amendment, anyway, I'd say we should revise that portion to state that Senate be at least required to have a floor vote on every nomination within a reasonable period of time (say 60 days).

I'm ambivalent about the highlighted. Surely some of the people pardoned are not actually guilty of the crimes they were convicted of? If so, then requiring them to admit guilt seems like kicking them when they're down.
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Good examples.

I think it's a challenge to write all the "may nots" into the rules because you'll never get it exactly right.

One needs to think in broader strokes.
 
Tommok said:
Or anyone who has anything to do with him at all. The power is not intended (or should never be meant) to benefit a president personally in even the slightest way. Any remote appearance of that should preclude him from even considering the pardon.

You know, corruption and stuff.
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A broader stroke for example would be a pardon obtained through a bribe is null and void.
 
trustbutverify said:
Yes, I agree. There should also be an appeal process to overturn any pardon with a significant appearance of self-interest. The standard must be strict.
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As long as there were clear criteria on what constituted a reason, this makes sense.

As for Carter pardoning all draft dodgers, maybe the Congress should advise him to do that. But with all the partisan crap in the last decades I don't think that will work.

Instead a blanket pardon could be defined as an act allowable in limited circumstances such as in cases of wars or something.
 
Squeegee Beckenheim said:
Reports from the White House suggest that staffers are unwilling to fill out the paperwork that would be required for Trump to pardon anybody. If those reports are true, then there will be no more pardons for anybody.
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I saw nothing like that. I did see however a report advisors talked him out of pardoning himself or his family because that would make a conviction on the impeachment a sure thing. That would go with not giving a blanket pardon to the rioters.

The article suggested he wasn't certain to take that advice. But these federal pardons for his corrupt acts set him up for state investigations. And that is a real threat.
 
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