Pardon Me!

 

There have been a lot of controversial presidential pardons in the last few weeks and days.

It began on December 1, 2024, with President Joe Biden issuing preemptive pardons for his son Hunter. Hunter Biden had been convicted and was awaiting sentencing on three charges - tax evasion, lying on a gun acquisition form and owning a gun while using illicit drugs.

President Biden claimed that Hunter was “singled out” for prosecution only because his last name is Biden. This particular charge is rarely made unless the gun in question has been used in committing a crime such as armed robbery. Hunter owned the gun for about a week in October 2018 before his girlfriend found it and got rid of it, concerned about possible suicide. The gun was never fired and I don’t believe was ever loaded while in Hunter’s possession.

So, should he be treated like every other American and never charged? Or should every American gun owner that ever got drunk on a Saturday night also be charged and face up to 25 years in prison? In that case there would be a lot of unhappy Trump voters.

As for his tax evasion – he has paid up in full including penalties. Why was he charged while a prominent Republican like Roger Stone, who owed more than Hunter, was not?

The main criticism of Joe Biden here is that he had promised that he would not pardon Hunter. And had Harris won the election I’m sure he would have stuck to that, confident that the sentencing would be fair and that would be the end of it. But with Trump in the White House, he had no such confidence, so just to be safe he extended the pardon to cover anything else the Republicans might accuse him of.

Another criticisms of Hunter’s pardon was that it set a precedent for Trump to pardon the January 6 rioters. But Trump had been promising this for some time already and hardly needed an excuse. Only a fool continues to play by the old rules when your opponent no longer does.

Then on his last day of office, President Biden offered broad preemptive pardons to a large number of people who have not been charged with any crimes but who were on, or suspected of being on, a list of Trump’s enemies whom he had sworn to exact revenge. The list included Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and members of the January 6 House Committee. It also included members of Biden’s family - his brother James Biden and his wife, his sister Valerie and her husband, and his brother Francis.

This was an extraordinary use of the presidential pardon, issuing blanket pardons for people who have not yet been charged. Biden himself said that "The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offence”. Liz Cheney’s response to the news of the pardon: “We are not being pardoned for breaking the law but for upholding it”.

Were these pardons necessary? One would hope not. But experience has shown that Trump’s assurances, and that of Trump’s nominee for Attorney General Pam Bondi, that the Justice Department under the Trump administration would be “fair, equal and impartial”, cannot be trusted.

I was kind of hoping that Cheney would decline her pardon – I’d love to watch her eviscerate the Republican prosecutors.

This brings us to Trump’s pardons.

President Trump keeps referring to his strong mandate to carry out his agenda. But just how many Americans support the pardon of the people who invaded the Capital Building, battling police and damaging the building? Not a majority of Americans. A recent poll found 73% of American adults, including 55% of Republicans, oppose pardons for those convicted of assaulting Capitol Police officers. At first he was only going to pardon the non-violent rioters but backlash to Vance’s assertion of this changed the tune to nearly all.

Trump’s act of pardoning the January 6 rioters sends several messages:

·         He doesn’t care about the opinion of the American people, only that of his base

·         Trump admits that they were following his wishes (if not orders) in the attack, calling them “patriots” (so much for the story they were planted FBI agents)

·         He insulted the police officers who risked their lives to protect the Capital and the Senators and Congressmen inside it, and relinquishes any notion that MAGA is the party of law and order

·         He gets 1,500 more violent unofficial soldiers to carry out his hinted wishes

·         He assures his followers that if they commit crimes on his behalf that they will not face consequences.

Possibly the most controversial pardon (so far) was the full and unconditional pardon by President Trump to Ross Ulbricht, founder of the criminal drug marketplace called The Silk Road. In a phone call to Ulbricht’s mother Trump told her that this was repayment to “the Libertarian Movement which supported me so strongly”. As long as you vote for Trump and give him enough money, is there any crime that he wouldn’t overlook?

In contrast, the last minute (literally, the inauguration process had already started) commute by Joe Biden of Native American Rights activist Leonard Peltier should not be controversial and is long overdue. Peltier was convicted nearly 50 years ago of murdering two FBI agents with no evidence, lying witnesses, and hidden evidence that would have exonerated him. The prosecutor has since admitted the conviction was a mistake and personally asked Biden for clemency. Peltier, now 80 and in declining health, will serve the rest of his life sentence in home confinement.

This is what presidential pardons are for.

Sources

https://protectdemocracy.org/work/new-poll-republicans-oppose-jan-6-pardons/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/biden-last-minute-pardons-1.7435857

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/21/ross-ulbricht-silk-road-trump-pardon

https://tcinla757.substack.com/p/poking-around-48-hours-after-the