How can you pardon someone who hasn’t been charged?
Excellent question. Didn’t I hear that the Clinton Foundation ainvestigation will take two years?
Obama won’t be able to help her then.
Nixon wasn’t but that did not stop Ford.. You bet your sweet bippy Obozo will pardon Hildabeast,,,stay tuned...it is coming.
Either way....we win.
Ford did it for Nixon.
Why would you pardon someone who has been “cleared”???
President Ford actually pardoned President Nixon for any crimes he might have committed and caught holy hell for it as we all remember.
Ford also justified it by referencing Burdick v. United States, (a 1915 U.S. Supreme Court decision) which stated that a pardon indicated a presumption of guilt, and that acceptance of a pardon was tantamount to a confession of that guilt.
So I say - let him give her a pardon but lets also ensure the Clinton Foundation never see's the light of day in 2017. Maybe have her forfeit her gubmint pension as bonus points.
She can be pardoned the same way Ford pardoned Nixon. Pardon for any and all crimes.
Yes, you can pardon someone proactively. At least, it has been done before. Consider the pardon of Nixon by Ford, or the blanket pardon of deserters and draft card burners by Carter. In many (most?) cases, charges had not been filed, but this was a way for the president to say "don't bother".
This (NYT) "letter to the editor" from 1988 goes into some of the nitty gritty... and though it's just a letter to the editor, it's facts are spot on: Pardon before conviction
Fair use quote of the salient bit: The leading Supreme Court case is Ex parte Garland (1867). Justice Stephen J. Field, writing for the Court in a 5-4 decision, held that the President's pardoning power is ''unlimited,'' and ''It extends to every offense known to the law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment.''
Obama would be doing Trump a big favor to pardon Hillary.
If Obama doesn’t pardon Hillary Trump will be criticized from the left as vindictive if he pursues an investigation of her and from the right for breaking his word if he doesn’t.
If she is pardoned Trump will be free of any responsibility to investigate her and he can concentrate on his agenda.
A Hillary pardon would not mean that Trump couldn’t pursue wrongdoing on the part of others, especially in relation to the Clinton Foundation.