A pardon is a tacit admission of guilt. But what it does is wipe his record clean so that he would no longer be a felon. A commutation would just end his sentence and not wipe away the status of a felon.
This guy is not a threat to anyone, and by all accounts was a good sailor.
This is the best, most compassionate thing that Trump could do for this man’s family.
And you know what I like?
When this came to Trump’s attention, he probably looked at whatever someone handed him, asked if it were accurate, and made a decision.
Other politicians would have said “Let’s wait until the end of this term or until after the next election campaign...” but I suspect he just said “This isn’t right. Get him out.”
From all I have read about Trump so far from people who are close to him, this sounds like it would be a common theme.
No pussyfooting around. Just make a decision, do it, ignore the noise, and go to the next thing.
I’m open to defining pardon more broadly. It always struck me as saying someone didn’t do anything wrong.
“A pardon is a tacit admission of guilt.”
Not always. Sometimes it sets aside an injustice as we saw in this case.