Posted on 04/10/2026 6:22:51 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Ed Martin makes the case for mercy in an age of lawfare and politicized justice.
When the justice system becomes a political weapon, clemency stops being a “presidential privilege” and becomes one of the last guardrails against abuse.
And that’s why the left is so scared.
The second Trump starts issuing pardons, the media spin machine kicks into high gear. They treat his acts of clemency with the same tired bias they always do, suddenly acting like mercy itself is suspicious. What they never stop to ask is what mercy actually means when the justice system is no longer acting justly.
That’s the foundation of Ed Martin’s piece on mercy in the Trump era. He walks readers through pardon power, mercy, and the deeper moral meaning behind clemency. But beneath all of that is something truly relevant right now. When institutions become political weapons, when process becomes punishment, and when the state starts operating like a Gestapo, mercy isn’t optional. It’s necessary.
That’s why Ed Martin’s article matters to Weaponization Watch. This isn’t just some stuffy discussion about forgiveness. It’s a living, breathing piece about what happens when the American people believe the justice system is unjust. In a country now shaped by lawfare, selective prosecution, and the open use of state power against political enemies, clemency becomes one of the last real lines of defense.
And I just want to pause here for a moment and say something about Ed Martin himself, because this article of his carries a lot of extra weight coming from someone with serious legal and executive experience.
Who is Ed Martin?
Edward R. Martin, Jr. brings serious legal, government, and operational experience to this fight. He clerked for Pasco Bowman II, a respected Reagan-appointed federal judge once shortlisted for the Supreme Court, an early mark of top-tier legal ability. He later worked at Bryan Cave LLP on complex legal matters and also became a New York Times bestselling author, showing he could communicate major issues to a national audience.
Martin went on to serve as Chief of Staff to Missouri Governor Matt Blunt, where he helped manage the workings of a major state government and gained firsthand experience with executive leadership and bureaucracy. He also served as Chairman of the St. Louis Board of Elections, overseeing election administration and the integrity of the electoral process. In other words, Ed isn’t speaking from the sidelines. He understands the law, government power, and how institutions actually operate, which is exactly why his role in the clemency fight matters.
Ed Martin Connects Mercy to a Broken Justice System
Ed shows that President Trump has used the pardon power with seriousness, consistency, and a willingness to wield it throughout his presidency. That matters because it turns clemency from a ceremonial political favor into an active tool of judgment and a real line of defense against lawfare.
And that’s where the left starts panicking. Because once pardon power is treated as an answer to abuse instead of a footnote to a presidency, it forces a question out into the open for everyone to see: why does mercy suddenly become offensive when Trump is the one extending it?
In the end, it doesn’t matter what the left likes or doesn’t like, because President Trump is using clemency as part of his governance.
President Trump, as is so often true, does not act like a standard, run-of-the-mill politician. He uses the pardon power almost every month. He uses it to give second chances and to protect those whom he sees as wronged. He exercises this power without fear.
Most presidents avoid using the pardon power this aggressively because they know the press, the bureaucracy, and the establishment will frame it as corruption or favoritism. But Trump pushing forward anyway shows he sees clemency as a duty.
And for Weaponization Watch, the most important phrase in that passage is “to protect those whom he sees as wronged.” That is the whole point. That’s why we exist.
And as Ed puts it, this wasn’t some symbolic exercise of presidential power.
In 2025, a year I called the Year of Trump Mercy, President Trump performed thousands of acts of mercy through pardons. He did this for people whom he had met and thousands that he never personally knew. He pardoned cops, freed life-long and rehabilitated prisoners, and forgave debts.
The usual tired line is that pardons are suspicious because they must be personal, political, or self-serving. But Martin is describing something much bigger than that. This is about correction, restoration, and intervention. And as a bonus, President Trump is actually the one exercising that power, not handing it off to an autopen, which the media somehow never seemed to mind before.
And this is where the piece becomes especially relevant to the moment we’re facing in the United States.
Mercy and the pardon power appear to upend this system: the president can effectively end the delivery of justice. This may rightly be called the scandal of the pardon—it is a power ‘above the law.’
When it suits them, the left acts like “procedure” proves fairness. As if an indictment, a conviction, or a sentence is automatically legitimate just because it came from a court or a federal agency. But that’s exactly the lie Weaponization Watch is here to expose. Yes, institutions can be corrupted. Prosecutors can act politically. And the entire process can be turned into punishment.
The real scandal isn’t mercy interrupting political justice. The real scandal is political justice becoming totally normal and acceptable.
Though some call out acts of mercy like pardons as unjust, outside of the regular order of justice, there is something deeply restorative and healthy for the society that gives and receives pardon.
A society can’t survive on procedure. It can’t stay together if every institution becomes a machine that only punishes, never restores, never corrects, and never admits that power can be abused.
And that’s why clemency matters so much in this lawfare age. Mercy isn’t weakness. It’s one of the few ways a system can heal after overreach.
Martin brings the whole thing home by arguing that pardon power isn’t just about relieving punishment, but also about restoring human dignity.
So the divine pardon of the Good Thief is not only forgiving, but transformative. God’s mercy transcends justice and bestows transcendence in heaven. The same logic is at work on the natural level with the use of the pardon power by American presidents. Beneficiaries of a pardon tend to have a new and deepened sense of gratitude and responsibility—gratitude for this gift from above and responsibility to be worthy of it. We can say they have become more alive, more human. They have a new chance, a first step on a second chance.
You can read Ed’s entire piece by clicking here.
One of the ugliest things about weaponized justice is that it doesn’t just try to convict people. It tries to shrink them and turn a human being into an everlasting symbol of guilt and a warning to everybody else.
Clemency pushes back against that. It says the state doesn’t get the final word on a person’s life. In cases like this, a person is more than his prosecution and more than the political value everybody’s squeezing out of him.
And that’s why mercy is so dangerous to the left. They’re now used to controlling the narrative by force. Mercy gives people their lives and their stories back.
This is also why Cynthia Hughes’ work matters so much. Weaponization Watch and the Patriot Freedom Project are about the human toll of a system that can eat you alive. It can decimate families, savings, reputations, and futures while still claiming it’s just “doing its job.”
For families living through politicized prosecutions, mercy is relief. It’s oxygen and room to breathe. It’s the difference between being buried alive by lawfare and being seen as a human being worth saving.
Ed Martin’s piece is definitely about mercy, but in this critical moment, it’s also an indictment of weaponized lawfare and the bad actors who call Trump’s mercy a “scandal.”
Weaponization Watch exists to expose these patterns, defend the people caught inside the machine, and keep telling the truth about what our once sacred institutions have become.
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The left will try again to kill, or jail President Trump and his associates. They think they did not do enough last time.
I’d rather throw all the crooked judges in prison. They aren’t all doing this for free. Boasberg and his bitch daughter are in our face crooked and it can be proven. But FBI is worthless.
“The real scandal is political justice becoming totally normal and acceptable.”
Fanatic Obama Judge Beryl Howell ordered pretrial detention for J6 protesters, some of whom languished for four years in the DC gulag, without a trial until Trump pardoned them. Beryl Howell
Indeed, I’ve pretty much lost all respect for our judicial system. Not only corrupt prosecutors, but also the demonically perverse judges have all but destroyed any concept of “justice”.
And that’s why the left is so scared.
Nonsense. They're scared because they know they have committed real crimes in their pursuit of 'power at any cost.'
exactly. trump will be in prison 5 minutes after his term is up. sooner if midterms go badly
There are many people on all 'sides' who are ignoring laws destroying laws, using any means necessary to cut a great road to go after "The Orange Devil". These people are evil, power hungry, and do not hold any loyalty or devotion to the principle of law upon which this nation was founded. They must be defeated and destroyed for our own safety's sake.
They all...ALL...deserve the punishment of the coming storm and winds.
The Left celebrates when a corrupt judge let’s a serial violent offender out of jail early.
The Left froths at the mouth when Trump pardons a J6-er who was being held for no good reason.
For them, mercy, like everything else, is purely political.
exactly. trump will be in prison 5 minutes after his term is up. sooner if midterms go badly
*******************************************
Nah. Impeachment is accusations from House of Reps.
Conviction is Senate and requires 2/3 majority. Ain’t happening.
Impeachment does cause problems.
I know it will never happen, but there needs to be a bipartisan effort to permanently kill lawfare. It is a cancer. The Dems should never be allowed to use it again. Trump flirted with it and I know he was probably justified in doing so with scum like Comey and Fat Tish, but he probably should have just let it go and gotten behind an effort to root it out and stop it. Lawfare is a big step in this country becoming a banana republic. Yes, the Dems will take it up again when they regain control. They are bloodthirsty for scalps and the media not only won’t hold them to account, but is egging them on. And the GOP is too weak to stand up to it.
Bkmk
Try denying habeas corpus to some illegal charged of committing even a murderous crime and watch how fast this wicked lawless ‘judge’ comes to their rescue.
This is not a battle against flesh and blood.
This article keeps referring to Ed Martin and a piece by Ed Martin.
Fine, but who wrote this piece, and where is the piece by Ed Martin?
I guess this article is an introduction to a different article..
Is there a link to the article by Ed Martin, whoever that is?
Too confusing..
This article keeps referring to Ed Martin and a piece by Ed Martin.
Fine, but who wrote this piece, and where is the piece by Ed Martin?
I guess this article is an introduction to a different article..
Is there a link to the article by Ed Martin, whoever that is?
Too confusing..
The section heading “Chronicle Magazine” is a hot link to the article by Ed Martin in Chronicle Magazine. I could not find who the authored article. It is likely an editorial board at “Weaponization Watch). The Ed Martin article is on mercy in general. This article is about Trump’s mercy toward people he thinks have been victims of weaponized government.
“The section heading “Chronicle Magazine” is a hot link to the article by Ed Martin in Chronicle Magazine.”
Ahh… thanks. That helps.
‘“The real scandal is political justice becoming totally normal and acceptable.”
Fanatic Obama Judge Beryl Howell ordered pretrial detention for J6 protesters, some of whom languished for four years in the DC gulag, without a trial until Trump pardoned them. Beryl Howell’
____________________________________________________________
A factually incorrect narrative. Any of the J6 protesters who were in custody could have invoked their constitutional right to a speedy trial at any time of their confinement. To remain in custody means they waived their speedy trial rights.
Howell and Boasberg just happen to be the chief judges of the DC District court, in succession, so their name becomes a touchstone for those ignorant of court governance and basic criminal legal practice.
Scumbag grifter Jake Lang did this. He used staying in jail to fundraise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Then took in money for a book he was going to publish - and published one chapter.
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