Biden and Trump Show Presidents How To Abuse Clemency
Monday was a big day for presidential clemency, but that does not mean it was a good day. Both outgoing President Joe Biden and incoming President Donald Trump used that power in self-interested, short-sighted ways, sacrificing the public interest to benefit political allies and, in Biden’s case, family members.
Biden granted preemptive pardons to five relatives, former COVID-19 adviser Anthony Fauci, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, and the members of the House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Those pardons were necessary, he argued, to prevent his successor from pursuing “baseless and politically motivated prosecutions.”
Even if such prosecutions were ultimately unsuccessful, Biden noted, they would impose financial and emotional costs on Trump’s targets. But critics of the move, including at least two members of the January 6 committee, noted that the pardons entailed an implicit admission of guilt and set a dangerous precedent that is apt to undermine the rule of law and the accountability of federal officials.
Trump’s threats to punish his political opponents are, by and large, legally groundless. He has argued, for example, that the legislators who investigated the Capitol riot and criticized his role in it are guilty of “treason,” which is punishable by death or by a prison sentence of at least five years.
A person commits that crime when he “ow[es] allegiance to the United States” and “levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere.” Even less
Article from Reason.com
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