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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump Is Weaponizing Pardons
Trump Is Weaponizing Pardons
The president has taken a prerogative intended to temper justice with mercy, and turned it into an instrument of the culture war.
David A. Graham 12:20 PM ET Politics
Beyond President Trumps prolific dishonesty and extensive use of social media, its difficult to forecast what his administrations enduring legacies may be for the presidency. But its becoming ever more likely that his innovative use of the pardon power will be one.
On Thursday, President Trump announced (on Twitter, of course) that he will pardon Dinesh DSouza, the conservative writer convicted in 2014 of campaign-finance fraud. DSouza illegally pushed donations to a Senate candidate, asking friends to donate and then reimbursing them, contravening limits on giving.
Its Trumps fifth pardon of his short presidency, and the third to go to a conservative cause célèbre, after former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Dick Cheney aide Scooter Libby. Other presidents have used pardons to send political messages, as when Jimmy Carter pardoned Vietnam War draft dodgers or Andrew Johnson pardoned Confederates; or to help out cronies, as when Bill Clinton pardoned financier Marc Rich, a major donor who was on the run from prosecution. Other presidents have also tended to wait until the end of their terms to grant high-profile pardons.
Trumps innovation is to turn the pardon into an everyday tool of culture war, wedding the political messaging of Carter and Johnson to the individualist cronyism of Clinton. As with so many of Trumps maneuvers, this is entirely within the legal bounds of his power but still largely outside the realm of propriety and precedent. In addition to the possible implications that Trumps pardons have for the investigation into collusion with Russiacritics worry hell use them to obstruct prosecutionhis methods of wielding the pardon power are likely to have long-ranging effects. New executive powers, once unsheathed, are seldom and only slowly reversed. That means the pardon could become a workaday tool of political combat in future administrations, too.
While the pardon power retains an aura of sacred mercy, reaching back to its legal antecedents among Anglo-Saxon monarchs who ostensibly ruled as divine regents, there are records of abuse as far back as the Norman period. Even so, Trumps decisions so far have been notable, especially for the nature of the crimes committed by those he has pardoned. The president has granted mercy to prominent conservatives more or less off the cuff, circumventing the standard application process through the Justice Department, in some cases undermining the rule of law with these moves.
more...
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/05/trump-is-weaponizing-the-pardon-power/561617/
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Trump Is Weaponizing Pardons (Original Post)
babylonsister
May 2018
OP
lame54
(35,259 posts)1. Just as he overturns Obama's accomplishments...
he is erasing the FBI's high profile cases
Is the Unabomber next?
spanone
(135,776 posts)2. Yep....perfect reality show fodder
N_E_1 for Tennis
(9,660 posts)3. NY is trying to ruin the firing pin...
https://www.rawstory.com/2018/05/new-yorks-top-prosecutor-makes-urgent-call-law-circumvent-politically-expedient-pardons-trump/
Barbara Underwood, the acting Attorney General for the state of New York, on Thursday called on the state legislature to pass a law that would allow the criminal prosecution of suspects even if they have already been convicted and pardoned at the federal government level.
Underwood made the remarks to reporters after President Donald Trump announced that he was pardoning conservative loyalist Dinesh DSouza.
Barbara Underwood, the acting Attorney General for the state of New York, on Thursday called on the state legislature to pass a law that would allow the criminal prosecution of suspects even if they have already been convicted and pardoned at the federal government level.
Underwood made the remarks to reporters after President Donald Trump announced that he was pardoning conservative loyalist Dinesh DSouza.