Trump's Pardoning Powers Could Be Limited After Mueller's First Indictment

With the first indictment looming from the federal Trump-Russia investigation, President Donald Trump is getting a reminder: His pardoning pardons can’t fix everything.

“I don't think the president's power is all that absolute, as people have been suggesting,” California Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC News’ “This Week” Sunday.

“The president cannot pardon people if it's an effort to obstruct justice, if it's an effort to prevent Bob Mueller and others from learning about the President's own conduct. So, there are limitations.”

Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who has been investigating the Trump campaign’s potential Russia ties, is expected to unseal his first criminal charges as early as Monday.

Schiff said he has not been told who will be hit by the indictments, but he believes based on press reports that it will either be former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort or former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Both men resigned from their positions after controversy over their ties to foreign governments, which Mueller has been scrutinizing.

The Constitution allows the president broad powers to pardon people for “Offenses against the United States." There is no precedent for a sitting president pardoning people tied to his campaign, as will likely be the case for Mueller’s debut indictment.

Ask Dolly Parton:

” I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden.”

Trump can pardon whoever Mueller indicts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon

“In the United States, the pardon power for federal crimes is granted to the President of the United States under Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution which states that the President “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment”. The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted this language to include the power to grant pardons, conditional pardons, commutations of sentence, conditional commutations of sentence, remissions of fines and forfeitures, respites, and amnesties.[25]

All federal pardon petitions are addressed to the President, who grants or denies the request. Typically, applications for pardons are referred for review and non-binding recommendation by the Office of the Pardon Attorney, an official of the United States Department of Justice.[26] The percentage of pardons and reprieves granted varies from administration to administration; however, fewer pardons have been granted since World War II.[27]

The pardon power has been controversial from the enactment of the United States Constitution.”

List of pardoned people and their crimes:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_granted_clemency_by_the_President_of_the_United_States

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George Washington

President George Washington pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 16 people.[2] Among them are:

Philip Vigol (or Wigle) and John Mitchel, convicted of treason for their roles in the Whiskey Rebellion

John Adams

Federalist President John Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 21 people.[2] Among them are:

David Bradford, for his role in the Whiskey Rebellion
John Fries, for his role in Fries’s Rebellion; convicted of treason due to opposition to a tax; Fries and others were pardoned, and a general amnesty was issued for everyone involved.

Thomas Jefferson

Democratic-Republican President Thomas Jefferson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 119 people.[2] One of his first acts upon taking office was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act.[5] Among them are:

David Brown – convicted of sedition under the Sedition Act of 1798 because of his criticism of the United States federal government, receiving the harshest sentence of anyone; pardoned along with all violators of the act.
Benjamin Fairbanks – Convicted with Brown of erecting a Liberty Pole in Dedham, Massachusetts. He received the lightest sentence of anyone under the Act.

James Madison

Democratic-Republican President James Madison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 196 people.[2] Among them are:

William Hull – while Governor of the Michigan Territory, sentenced to death for surrendering Fort Detroit; pardoned
Jean Lafitte and Pierre Lafitte and the Baratarian Pirates for past piracy, granted due to their assistance during the War of 1812; granted February 6, 1815.[6]

James Monroe

Democratic-Republican President James Monroe pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 419 people.[2] Among them are:

Numerous individuals convicted of piracy.[7]

John Quincy Adams

Democratic-Republican President John Quincy Adams pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 183 people.[2] Among them are:

Captain L. O. Helland – arrested for having more passengers on board the vessel (Restauration) than were allowed by American law; pardoned
Wekau and Chickhonsic – Ho-Chunk leaders pardoned for their role in the Winnebago War[8]

Andrew Jackson

Democratic President Andrew Jackson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 386 people.[2] Among them is:

George Wilson – convicted of robbing the United States mails. Strangely, Wilson refused to accept the pardon. The case went before the Supreme Court, and in United States v. Wilson the court stated: “A pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential, and delivery is not complete without acceptance. It may then be rejected by the person to whom it is tendered; and if it is rejected, we have discovered no power in this court to force it upon him.” As such, rather than serve a sentence of 20 years Wilson was executed by hanging.

Martin Van Buren

Democratic President Martin Van Buren pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 168 people.[2] Among them are:

William Lyon Mackenzie – violation of American neutrality laws; pardoned

William Henry Harrison

Whig President William Henry Harrison was one of only two presidents who gave no pardons. This was due to his death shortly after taking office.
John Tyler

Whig President John Tyler pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 209 people.[2] Among them are:

Alexander William Holmes – sailor convicted of voluntary manslaughter (U.S. v. Holmes); pardoned

James K. Polk

Democratic President James K. Polk pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 268 people.[2] Among them is:

John C. Frémont – convicted by court martial of mutiny. Frémont later became the 1856 Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States.

Zachary Taylor

Whig President Zachary Taylor pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 38 people.[2]
Millard Fillmore

Whig President Millard Fillmore pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 170 people.[2] Among them is:

Daniel Drayton and Edward Sayres – convicted in the Pearl incident (transporting slaves to freedom); pardoned

Franklin Pierce

Democratic President Franklin Pierce pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 142 people.[2]
James Buchanan

Democratic President James Buchanan pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 150 people.[2] Among them are:

Brigham Young – pardoned for role in the Utah War.
Daniel Vandersmith – a former judge, pardoned for forgery.[9]

Abraham Lincoln

Republican President Abraham Lincoln pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 343 people.[2] Among them are:

264 of 303 Dakota Indians who attacked white settlers in the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862.[10]
Clement Vallandigham – Copperhead sentenced for disloyalty; sentence commuted, and deported to the Confederacy.[11]
Various men who enlisted in the army, but who were, among other circumstances, underage, bounty jumpers, or AWOL.[12]

Andrew Johnson

Democratic President Andrew Johnson pardoned about 7,000 people in the “over $20,000” class by May 4, 1866. More than 600 prominent North Carolinians were pardoned just before the election of 1864.[13] President Andrew Johnson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 654 people.[2] Among them are:

Ex-Confederates – a full and unconditional pardon and amnesty to all former Confederates of the rebellion on Christmas Day 1868, (earlier amnesties requiring signed oaths and excluding certain classes of people were issued by both Lincoln and Johnson).[14] Among them were:
Charles D. Anderson
Richard H. Anderson
Eli Metcalfe Bruce
Horatio Washington Bruce
Charles Clark
Jefferson Davis
Harris Flanagin
Augustus Hill Garland
Benjamin Harvey Hill
Wade Keyes
Enoch Louis Lowe
Andrew Gordon Magrath
Eugenius Aristides Nisbet
James Byeram Owens
Walter Preston
James Seddon
Alexander H. Stephens
George Trenholm
Samuel Arnold – charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln
Samuel Mudd – charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln
Edmund Spangler – charged with conspiring to murder Lincoln

Ulysses S. Grant

Republican President Ulysses S. Grant pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,332 people.[2] Among them are:

Ex-Confederate leaders – All but 500 former top Confederate leaders were pardoned when President Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872.

Rutherford B. Hayes

Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 893 people.[2] Among them is:

Ezra Heywood – Convicted of violating the 1873 Comstock Act; pardoned after 6 months

James Garfield

Republican President James A. Garfield was one of only two presidents who gave zero pardons. This was due to his assassination shortly after taking office.
Chester A. Arthur

Republican President Chester A. Arthur pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 337 people.[2] Among them is:

Fitz John Porter – Court-martialed for his actions at Second Bull Run; sentence commuted

Grover Cleveland

Democratic President Grover Cleveland pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,107 (est.) people during his two, non-consecutive terms.[2] Among them are:

James Brooks – Texas Ranger indicted for manslaughter; pardoned after lobbying from his fellow Rangers
Rudger Clawson – convicted of polygamy; pardoned
David King Udall – convicted on perjury charges; spent 3 months in prison; full and unconditional pardon
“Billy Wilson” (David L. Anderson) – outlaw; pardoned

Benjamin Harrison

Republican President Benjamin Harrison pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 613 people.[2] Among them are:

Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints – Granted amnesty and pardon for the offense of engaging in polygamous or plural marriage to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church).[15]

Grover Cleveland

See list under first term.
William McKinley

Republican President William McKinley pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 918 (est.) people.[2] Among them are:

Alexander McKenzie – contempt of court; pardoned
Charles Chilton Moore – jailed for blasphemy; pardoned

Theodore Roosevelt

Republican President Theodore Roosevelt pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 981 (est.) people.[2][16] Among them are:

Servillano Aquino – received death sentence for anti-American activities in the Philippines; pardoned after 2 years
Al Jennings – sentenced to life in prison for robbery; pardoned
Stephen A. Douglas Puter – convicted of land fraud; pardoned after 18 months so he could turn state’s evidence

William Howard Taft

Republican President William Howard Taft pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 758 people.[2] Among them are:

John Hicklin Hall – role in the Oregon land fraud scandal; pardoned
Charles W. Morse – convicted of violations of federal banking laws; pardoned due to ill health (later found to be feigned)
Captain Van Schaick – pardoned after 3 ½ years in prison for the General Slocum steamship disaster of 1904

Woodrow Wilson

Democratic President Woodrow Wilson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,480 people.[2] Among them are:

George Burdick – a New York newspaper editor, who had refused to testify in federal court regarding the sources used in his article concerning the collection of customs duties. He pleaded the 5th amendment; President Wilson then granted him a full pardon for all of his federal offenses, which he refused. He continued to plead the 5th, at which he was sentenced by a federal judge for contempt. It was then that the Supreme Court reinforced the necessity of accepting a pardon to be valid; the federal judge had imprisoned Burdick on the grounds that he was claiming falsely his need for protection against self-incrimination.[17]
Frederick Krafft – convicted for alleged violation of the Espionage Act. Only person convicted under this law to receive a full executive pardon.

Warren Harding

Republican President Warren G. Harding pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 800 people.[2] Among them are:

Eugene V. Debs – convicted of sedition under the Espionage Act of 1917; sentence commuted
Kate Richards O’Hare – convicted of sedition under the Espionage Act of 1917; sentence commuted

Calvin Coolidge

Republican President Calvin Coolidge pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,545 people.[2] Among them are:

Marcus Garvey – convicted of mail fraud; sentence commuted and deported
Lothar Witzke – German spy and saboteur; pardoned and deported

Herbert Hoover

Republican President Herbert Hoover pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,385 people.[2] Among them are:

Warren T. McCray – Governor of Indiana convicted of Mail Fraud; pardoned after learning of the KKK’s role in his arrest and conviction
Thomas W. Miller – conspiring to defraud the U.S. government; pardoned

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt granted 3,687 pardons in his four terms in office.[2] Among them are:

George R. Dale – convicted of violating Prohibition laws; pardoned after the repeal of Prohibition
Roy Olmstead – convicted for violating the National Prohibition Act; appealed, arguing that the wiretapping evidence used against him constituted a violation of his constitutional rights to privacy and against self-incrimination; U.S. Supreme Court upheld the conviction in the landmark case of Olmstead v. United States; pardoned
Duncan Renaldo – arrested for illegal entry into the US; pardoned

Harry Truman

Democratic President Harry S. Truman pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 2,044 people.[18] Among them are:

George Caldwell – income tax evasion; pardoned
Oscar Collazo – Collazo attempted Truman’s assassination; Commuted death sentence to life sentence; also see listing under Carter
James Michael Curley – fraud and mail fraud; pardoned
Richard W. Leche – mail fraud; pardoned
Andrew J. May – accepting bribes; pardoned
Seymour Weiss – tax evasion and mail fraud; pardoned

Dwight D. Eisenhower

Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,157 people.[18] Among them is:

Maurice L. Schick – military court-martial for brutal murder; death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, with the condition that he would never be released. Legal challenge went to the Supreme Court, questioning the constitutionality of the punishment “Life Imprisonment Without Parole”. Decided in Schick v. Reed that to be so sentenced was constitutional. He was not paroled.

John F. Kennedy

Democratic President John F. Kennedy pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 575 people.[18] Among them are:

First-time offenders convicted of crimes under the Narcotics Control Act of 1956 – pardoned all, in effect overturning much of the law passed by Congress.

Lyndon B. Johnson

Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 1,187 people.[18] Among them are:

Frank W. Boykin – Congressman convicted of bribery; pardoned in 1964 at the request of departing Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
Maurice Hutcheson – contempt of Congress; pardoned

Richard Nixon

Republican President Richard Nixon pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 926 people.[18] Among them are:

Jimmy Hoffa – convicted of fraud and bribery – sentence commuted (with conditions) on December 23, 1971
Angelo DeCarlo – convicted of extortion; served 3 years; pardoned due to poor health

Gerald Ford

Republican President Gerald Ford pardoned, commuted, or rescinded the convictions of 409 people.[18] Among them are:

Richard Nixon – granted a full and unconditional pardon just before he could be indicted in the Watergate scandal. This was the first – and only – time that a U.S. President received a pardon.
Ernest C. Brace – pardoned of his 1961 court-martial from the United States Marine Corps in light of his almost eight years as a POW in Vietnam.[19]
Iva Toguri D’Aquino – “Tokyo Rose” – only U.S. citizen convicted of treason during World War II to be pardoned
Robert E. Lee – full rights of citizenship were posthumously restored
Vietnam draft dodgers – Ford offered conditional amnesty to over 50,000 draft dodgers.

Jimmy Carter

Democratic President Jimmy Carter pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 566 people[18], and in addition to that pardoned over 200,000 Vietnam War draft dodgers.[20] Among them are:

Oscar Collazo – Attempted assassination on President Harry S. Truman; commuted to time served
G. Gordon Liddy – Watergate figure. Convicted for 20 years, commuted after serving 4½ years for conspiracy, burglary and illegal wiretapping.
Peter Yarrow – Singer-songwriter of Peter, Paul and Mary
Vietnam draft dodgers – Unconditional amnesty issued in the form of a pardon[20]
Jefferson Davis – President of the Confederate States of America.
Patty Hearst – Convicted of bank robbery; sentence commuted
Lolita Lebrón, Rafael Cancel Miranda, Irving Flores Rodriguez – opened fire in the U.S. House of Representatives and wounding five Congressmen in 1954; clemency
Frederic B. Ingram – Heir from Tennessee, convicted of bribing government officials in Illinois; jailed for 16 months.[21] His sentence was commuted by Carter in December 1980.[21]

Ronald Reagan

Republican President Ronald Reagan pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 406 people.[18] Among them are:

W. Mark Felt and Edward S. Miller – FBI officials convicted of authorizing illegal break-ins. Mark Felt later in life admitted to being Deep Throat, the informant during the Watergate affair.
Junior Johnson – Moonshining; pardoned
George Steinbrenner – Was convicted of illegal Nixon campaign contributions and obstruction of justice; pardoned
Marvin Mandel – former Governor of Maryland convicted of mail fraud and racketeering; clemency; conviction later overturned in U.S. district court.

George H. W. Bush
Main article: List of people pardoned by George H. W. Bush

Republican President George H. W. Bush pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 77 people.[18] Among them are:

For their roles in the Iran-Contra Affair
Elliott Abrams
Duane Clarridge
Clair George
Alan D. Fiers
Robert C. McFarlane – National Security Adviser to President Ronald Reagan
Caspar Weinberger – Secretary of Defense under President Ronald Reagan
Armand Hammer – CEO of the Occidental Petroleum Company, contributed $110,000 to the Republican National Committee just before his pardon. Pardoned for illegally contributing $54,000 to Richard Nixon’s presidential campaign in 1972.[22]
Myra Soble – 1957 conviction for her involvement in the Rosenberg spy ring; pardoned

Bill Clinton
Main article: List of people pardoned by Bill Clinton

Democratic President Bill Clinton pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 459 people.[18] Among them are:

Almon Glenn Braswell – convicted of mail fraud and perjury; pardoned
Henry Cisneros – Clinton’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count for lying to the FBI, and was fined $10,000.
Roger Clinton, Jr. – brother of Bill Clinton. After serving a year in federal prison for cocaine possession.
John Deutch – Director of Central Intelligence, former Provost and University Professor, MIT
Edward Downe, Jr. – wire fraud, filing false income tax returns, and securities fraud; pardoned
Elizam Escobar – seditious conspiracy; pardoned
FALN – commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN, a violent Puerto Rican terrorist group that set off 120 bombs in the United States, mostly in New York City and Chicago. The 16 were convicted of conspiracy and sedition and sentenced with terms ranging from 35 to 105 years in prison.
Henry O. Flipper – The first black West Point cadet was found guilty of “conduct unbecoming an officer” in 1882.
Patty Hearst – Bank robbery. Prison term commuted by Jimmy Carter. She was released from prison in 1979. She was fully pardoned by Clinton in 2001.
Rick Hendrick – NASCAR Team Owner & Champion; convicted of mail fraud; pardoned
Susan McDougal – partners with Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton in the failed Whitewater deal. Guilty of contempt of court, she served her entire sentence and was then pardoned.
Samuel Loring Morison – espionage and theft of government property; pardoned
Mel Reynolds – Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives. Bank fraud and obstruction of justice.
Marc Rich, Pincus Green – business partners; indicted by U.S. Attorney on charges of tax evasion and illegal trading with Iran.
Dan Rostenkowski – Democrat from Illinois, indicted for his role in the Congressional Post Office scandal and convicted of mail fraud. Served his entire sentence, then pardoned.
Fife Symington III – Republican Governor of Arizona convicted of bank fraud; pardoned.[23]

George W. Bush
Main article: List of people pardoned by George W. Bush

Republican President George W. Bush pardoned, commuted or rescinded the convictions of 200 people.[18] Among them are:

José Compeán and Ignacio Ramos – Two US Border Patrol agents who wounded drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete Dávila and tried to cover up the incident received commutation.[24]
John Forté – Hip-hop singer and songwriter sentenced for smuggling cocaine was commuted.[25]
Lewis “Scooter” Libby – Assistant to President George W. Bush and Chief of Staff to Dick Cheney was convicted of perjury in connection with the CIA leak scandal involving members of State Department who ‘outed’ CIA agent Valerie Plame. Libby received commutation, not a full pardon.
Issac Robert Toussie – Convicted of making false statements to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; pardoned and the pardon revoked one day later
Charles Winters – Posthumous pardon for smuggling three B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bombers to Israel in the late 1940s

Barack Obama
Main article: List of people granted executive clemency by Barack Obama

Democratic President Barack Obama pardoned 212 people and commuted the convictions of a further 1,715 people.[26] Among them are:

James Cartwright, pleaded guilty to giving false statements to federal investigators and was awaiting sentencing.[27]
Dwight J. Loving, sentenced to death for killing two taxi drivers. Loving’s sentence was commuted to life without parole.[28]
Chelsea Manning, sentenced to 35 years in prison for providing classified documents to WikiLeaks.[29]
Willie McCovey, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1995 and received two years probation and a $5,000 fine.[30]
Ian Schrager, pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 1979 and received three and a half years in prison and a $20,000 fine. [31]
Oscar López Rivera, sentenced to 55 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, use of force to commit robbery, interstate transportation of firearms, and conspiracy to transport explosives with intent to destroy government property, and subsequently to an additional 15 years for attempted escape.[32]

Donald Trump
Main article: List of people granted executive clemency by Donald Trump

Incumbent Republican President Donald Trump has pardoned one person as of August 25, 2017:

Joe Arpaio, former sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona, was convicted of contempt of court and was awaiting sentencing.[33]

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