I have always questioned the validity of pardoning a person before trial and conviction of a crime.
How can you pardon a person for crimes that may or may not have been committed?
“I have always questioned the validity of pardoning a person before trial and conviction of a crime. How can you pardon a person for crimes that may or may not have been committed?”
your questions have already been answered: SCOTUS adjudicated this very issue vis-a-vis the Ford-Nixon pardon and they ruled that preemptive pardons are Constitutional:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon