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Trump's Pardons

The language was more colorful.
 
The Blagojevich and Arpaio pardons are ridiculous. He is normalizing this abuse of power to pave the way for pardoning those involved in the Russia/Cohen investigation...including himself.

Trumpists - please don't ever talk about law and order again. You've lost all credibility if you support these and future pardons.
 
Dinesh D’Souza? Really?

Quote
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The handful of pardons that President Trump has granted so far may appear to be scattershot, but they’re beginning to show a distinct pattern — not just of who he believes is worthy of mercy, but of how he thinks about the justice system as a whole and about his power to bend it to his will.

On Thursday, Mr. Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, the right-wing troll known for, among other things, posting racist tweets about President Barack Obama, spreading the lie that George Soros was a Nazi collaborator and writing that “the American slave was treated like property, which is to say, pretty well.”

In 2014, Mr. D’Souza pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions, although he claimed that he had been targeted for political reasons. Last year, President Trump fired Preet Bharara, the federal prosecutor who handled Mr. D’Souza’s case. “KARMA IS A BITCH,” Mr. D’Souza exulted on Twitter Thursday, with his trademark graciousness. Mr. Bharara, he added, “wanted to destroy a fellow Indian American to advance his career. Then he got fired & I got pardoned.”

Mr. Trump, who told reporters that Mr. D’Souza “was very unfairly treated,” has the authority to pardon anyone he likes, for almost any reason. But pardons send a message. What message can we take from Mr. Trump’s executive clemency?

Maybe the president is sending a signal of loyalty and reassurance to friends and family members who may soon find themselves facing similar criminal charges in connection with the special counsel’s Russia inquiry. That could help explain Mr. Trump’s interest in Mr. D’Souza (campaign-finance violations), as well as two other big names he hinted on Thursday he might grant clemency to — the lifestyle maven Martha Stewart (lying to federal authorities) and former Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois (corruption and bribery) — and a previous Trump pardon, Scooter Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff (perjury and obstruction of justice).

Or maybe Mr. Trump is wielding his pardon power against his perceived enemies in federal law enforcement. Besides Mr. Bharara, there’s James Comey, who prosecuted Ms. Stewart, and Patrick Fitzgerald, who prosecuted both Mr. Blagojevich and Mr. Libby, and is a friend of Mr. Comey’s.

And let’s not forget Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff and hunter of undocumented immigrants, whom Mr. Trump pardoned last summer for contempt of a federal court order — Mr. Trump clearly was thumbing his nose at the federal court that found Mr. Arpaio guilty.

Or perhaps Mr. Trump simply is dealing another hammer blow to the legacy of Mr. Obama, who focused his own clemency efforts on reducing the lengthy sentences of thousands of low-level drug offenders with no personal connection to the White House.

The tendency of presidents of both parties to reward cronies with clemency — from Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon to Bill Clinton’s of the financier Marc Rich — is one Washington tradition that we’d welcome Mr. Trump smashing. Alas, it’s one that he shows every sign not only of continuing but of embracing: Mr. D’Souza told The Daily Caller that Senator Ted Cruz of Texas engineered his pardon with a personal plea to the president, even though Mr. Trump told reporters, “Nobody asked me to do it.”

One thing is becoming clear: Donald Trump uses whatever power he has to attack the people he feels have wronged him, and he will do what he feels he must to protect himself. For him, pardons are a means of vengeance. Those he’s issued to date are only a small hint of what could be coming as the Russia investigation heats up. Last year, John Dowd, Mr. Trump’s lawyer at the time, discussed the prospect of pardons for two of the president’s former top advisers, Michael Flynn and Paul Manafort, with their lawyers.

As Vox’s David Roberts wrote on Twitter, “Pardoning is basically the one presidential power that works the way Trump thought ALL of being president worked. He’s gonna use the [expletive] out of it.”

That is the real message of these pardons — and that, more than Mr. Trump clearing the record of some noxious clown, is what should really worry us.

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So, can we just get rid of this absurd presidential pardon thing? It doesn’t make sense that we allow one citizen to operate outside of our normal judicial system. There really should be no need for unilateral pardons.
 
So, can we just get rid of this absurd presidential pardon thing? It doesn’t make sense that we allow one citizen to operate outside of our normal judicial system. There really should be no need for unilateral pardons.

Add it to the list of Constitutional Amendments we'll need to pass once Trump is deposed.
 
So, can we just get rid of this absurd presidential pardon thing? It doesn’t make sense that we allow one citizen to operate outside of our normal judicial system. There really should be no need for unilateral pardons.

you might want to wait with that until after Trump pardons Obama

besides, the right to pardon is one of the oldest features of civilizations everywhere, but never mind, we are building lefty dystopia, and we can't be bothered with things like that
 
The power to pardon is fine.

An idiot with the maturity if a 12 year old in power is the problem.
 
...And an electorate so deranged and deceived as to imagine that a Trump presidency would be anything short of an unmitigated disaster. You know, idiots that could look at Trump as a healthy antidote to that super corrupt leftist Obama. Or just as a rich white guy with alleged “business” acumen.
 
I try not to get particularly upset about pardons, because the majority of them can raise a fuss in some form or fashion. However, I do agree with a sentiment I heard earlier though that was essentially: What is the point of campaign finance laws if you can be pardoned as long as you cheat enough to win?

I would respect Trump infinitely more if instead of just exploiting every loop hole in the system, he worked to actually close them. Like when he talked about how he never pays taxes. Yeah, everyone knows the rich hire people to find loop holes and avoid taxes. That's broken. Fix it. Instead, he acknowledged it and moved on. And we let him.
 
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besides, the right to pardon is one of the oldest features of civilizations everywhere, but never mind, we are building lefty dystopia, and we can't be bothered with things like that

that doesn't make it sensible
 
It's strange that every time a slightly objectionable pardon happens, the opposing party throws a fit and the entire notion of why we have pardons is discussed, yet neither party has the foresight or concentration to just come together and eliminate it.
 
Trump has posthumously pardoned the executed killer of James Byrd and commuted the other convicted killers of Mr. Byrd. POTUS said, "There are many fine murdering white people and their families have suffered enough. Byrd was black. They were right in thinking he was an animal. Isn't that right AG Sessions?"
 
sailor or tintin, any defense of these specific pardons?
 
Pardons can be used to restore the rights of people that deserve it and pardons / commutations can undo unjust and unfair sentencing, especially regarding measures like mandatory minimums that can lead to sentences that far outweigh the crime.

Yes Trump is using pardons to help his political allies and rich friends. That should be part of the story we should be telling leading up the midterms. Trump, his entire administration, and the Republicans protecting them are shockingly corrupt. Vote them out.
 
these pardon are a mockery of the political system and really just shows that this administration is corrupt. there is literally no reason to pardon these people...shameful.

i really hope that congress is taking note
 
The power to pardon should have limits on it specifically when it comes to crimes the president himself is involved with.
 
Perhaps I missed it... but I don't remember the outrage from the Tunnels' Left when the greatest president in modern history commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera whose terrorist group was responsible for more than 120 bombings in the US leading to the deaths of 5 people.

Just to refresh the selective memories, here is an article from the very conservative Politico:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/oscar-lopez-commutation-barack-obama-214685
 
Perhaps I missed it... but I don't remember the outrage from the Tunnels' Left when the greatest president in modern history commuted the sentence of Oscar López Rivera whose terrorist group was responsible for more than 120 bombings in the US leading to the deaths of 5 people.

Just to refresh the selective memories, here is an article from the very conservative Politico:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/oscar-lopez-commutation-barack-obama-214685

I was personally against this pardon but that's some solid whataboutism there.

2 wrongs don't make a right.
 
Obama should not have pardoned Manning either, but the problem isn't distasteful pardons. The problem is Trump seems hellbent on using the pardon power to protect himself, his family and his cronies from prosecution.
 
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