Posted on 12/16/2024 4:29:30 PM PST by Lazamataz
As is usual for the year 2024, we are in uncharted waters.
The Presidential Pardon is one of the only plenary powers that a president has. This power is one of the only ones that has nearly no restrictions or controls. The Founders granted the president this power with the thought that we would never have a truly criminal president.
The Framers of the Constitution modeled portions of our system on the British system of governance; in particular, the Pardon. The King of England was able to pardon individuals, and so were the governors of the American colonies. It was, then, logical that they would provide the president this power.
They expected that this power would be used as a check against the Judiciary, or in periods of great conflict when the pardoning of a leader, politician, or citizen would quell internal strife. There was great debate at the time, however, as to whether this ability should be applicable to the crime of treason.
When a president commits high crimes or treason, the remedy for that is impeachment and conviction. But what if the president instructs his staff to commit crimes, only to pardon them at the end of his term?
This effectively immunizes the president or his subordinates against possible criminal and civil charges for extremely illegal and immoral behavior, such as the depravation of Civil Rights under the color of law. It opens up a Pandora's Box and allows any future president to direct all sorts of criminal activity, while ensuring their subordinates do not face consequences for those actions.
We have President Biden considering pardoning the entire January 6 committee. We have him considering pardoning vast swaths of the FBI and intelligence community. These people clearly acted outside the law in spying on and maliciously prosecuting Donald Trump. If he does so -- or if Obama wills it and Biden acts -- I fear it wdoul permanently damage American Rule of Law, reducing it instead to a Rule of Man.
What if government agencies began persecuting people merely for their political leanings, only to be pardoned at the end of that sort of political bloodbath? I fear his wide-ranging pardons would permanently damage America, and allow future presidents to run roughshod over our civilian population.
“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
There are always competing ones - at least, so far.
Unfortunately, the idiot-in-chief can pardon everyone for anything.
We need a constitutional amendment of else and end-of-term “Everyone in my party gets a pardon” will happen.
The DS is In a Panic and it is Great
That the World Will See Americans
Took Back Our Nation to Truly
Fundamentally Transform it
To It’s Constitutional Roots.
.
We’ve accomplished what was said
Can’t be done and the Marxists
Will destroy themselves.
Well, fair.
But not because of any information provided by the fake media.
And my wife wonders why I yell at the TV if she lets David Manure come on.
Nixon was not a traitor scum
Another activist court decision.
Yes, I considered Nixon before I wrote.
The power of the pardon should be limited to actual conviction of a federal crime.
That would put him at the top wouldn't it.
All JMO:
1. Yes, joetato is abusing the power.
2. No, we shouldn’t restrict it from future Presidents.
Just because you drive drunk doesn’t mean I should have my license suspended.
This is a lesson to all of us about the consequences of our elections.
Pick a good President and you won’t have to worry about his pardon power.
... also, the President can only pardon for federal crimes. I’m sure all these criminals are about to get charged with state and local crimes - at least in the red states.
Justice is coming.
Again, JMO.
In a better world one of the effing idiots who writes for the New York Times or Washington Post would have come up with this question first - - one more reason the MSM is dying.
I think Biden is going to pardon everyone who can afford one.
Pardon anybody who buys one. The more the merrier. Everybody who gets a pardon from among the elite (please pardon Obama) will be outed as a criminal and burned to ashes in the reputation department.
Plus, PDJT’s administration won’t get bogged down in the past. He’ll be free to look forward, and empowered to trash those phony reputations.
Heck, I wish PDJT would pardon people like Tapper, Stahl, Acosta, and all the rest just to shame them with the ultimate trolling move.
Indeed.
The pardon of Nixon was not challenged. Probably a good thing. My speculation is that if pardons are given to people who have not been convicted of crimes, the USSC might disallow it. So, here’s a friendly suggestion for Biden. Have everyone who you might pardon draw up a list of Federal Felonies they have committed. Charge them and have them plead guilty. Then pardon them. Easy peasy.
I hope that Trump can cancel the Biden pardon’s citing that almost none were charged or convicted of anything.
Then go after the crooks and put them in prison!
The only missing ingredient in your discussion is the voters.
What people don't talk about is how much we voters have learned since those hellish days in November and December 2020 when we saw that the US could have an election stolen by a handful of motivated people -- and that there was nothing we could do about it! Very upsetting lesson that was.
What we must do is correct the election process and make it iron-clad and incorruptible. So that a vain and corrupt cartoon character like Biden never sees the inside of the Oval Office again.
We are no where near that point now.
Another reform benchmark would be repealing the 17th Amendment.
We have, though, made huge strides toward improving our intel -- nobody believes the MSM anymore, and lies and subterfuge by the left are usually revealed in a blog or podcast or Fox in days.
To sum it up, the hoodwinking and election theft that we just suffered for four years is unlikely going forward because we are less naive and complacent.
Yes, Biden will probably pardon a lot of people who ought to be tried. But like the pardon of Nixon, it more or less labeled him guilty without a trial. A pardon is not a panacea.
As an optimist I'm convinced that far more good will come from Biden pardoning legions of low-lifes than would be obtained by us having interminable trials going on until 2028. And what if Rat juries acquit them? Big step backward that would be.
Rats are yesterday's newspaper. They are a lime-green double-knit leisure suit with bell-bottoms. Best thing is for them to take their pardons and slink away into oblivion, where, if they are ever remembered, it is with contempt.
Pedo Joe Bidenskyyyy has put more criminals on American streets than all of the Mexican Cartels, the Mexican President and all of the Venezuelan Prisons put together.
GREAT post Laz. Thanks. The crime syndicate is so much larger than just The Biden Crime Family.
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