Requires a conviction to pardon
No it doesn’t. That’s just your convenient excuse to try to absolve Trump.
Nixon was pardoned and was never tried or convicted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM9dGr8ArR0
In addition to President Gerald Ford’s pardon of President Richard Nixon after Watergate, we also have President Jimmy Carter’s pardon of Vietnam draft dodgers with Proclamation 4483 and President George H.W. Bush’s pardon of Caspar Weinberger.
You don’t get to make up facts because of your fealty to Trump makes for uncomfortable reality.
Trump COULD have done exactly what Carter did, with a stroke of a pen. He CHOOSE not to.
No it doesn’t. See Nixon.
He could have issued a blanket pardon for all parties that day.
But, he would have taken so much shit for it, he wouldn’t be able to run again.