pardoned a number of people<\/a>, not because the system had treated them unfairly, but\u00a0 —\u00a0 we have no realistic alternative to believing\u00a0 —\u00a0 because they were his buddies or political allies.<\/p>\nThere is no way to look at this other than as an abuse of office.\u00a0 Using your power (and your trust) as an officer of the government simply to shower benefits on your friends must be high on the list of what it means to be corrupt.\u00a0 I was honored to be one of President Trump’s nominees for the Sentencing Commission, but his actions today were wrong.\u00a0 In a later post, I will examine what if anything can be done to rein in abuses of this sort (which, I might add, are anything but exclusive to Donald Trump).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The President’s plenary power to pardon is an essential part of his authority as head of the executive branch.\u00a0 The Framers recognized that, sometimes, the reach of criminal law is too wide and too harsh, even if correct under its black letter.\u00a0 Hence the power to grant clemency. This week, however, and today in particular, President Trump pardoned a number of people, not because the system had treated them unfairly, but\u00a0 —\u00a0 we have no realistic alternative to believing\u00a0 —\u00a0 because they were his buddies or political allies. There is no way to look at this other than as an abuse of office.\u00a0 Using your power (and your trust) as an officer of the government simply to shower benefits on your friends must be high on the list of what it means to be corrupt.\u00a0 I was honored to be one of President Trump’s nominees for the Sentencing Commission, but his actions today were wrong.\u00a0 In a later post, I will examine what if anything can be done to rein in abuses of this sort (which, I might add, are anything but exclusive to Donald Trump).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2651","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-clemency"],"yoast_head":"\n
Pardoning Your Pals - Crime & Consequences<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pardoning Your Pals - Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The President’s plenary power to pardon is an essential part of his authority as head of the executive branch.\u00a0 The Framers recognized that, sometimes, the reach of criminal law is too wide and too harsh, even if correct under its black letter.\u00a0 Hence the power to grant clemency. This week, however, and today in particular, President Trump pardoned a number of people, not because the system had treated them unfairly, but\u00a0 —\u00a0 we have no realistic alternative to believing\u00a0 —\u00a0 because they were his buddies or political allies. There is no way to look at this other than as an abuse of office.\u00a0 Using your power (and your trust) as an officer of the government simply to shower benefits on your friends must be high on the list of what it means to be corrupt.\u00a0 I was honored to be one of President Trump’s nominees for the Sentencing Commission, but his actions today were wrong.\u00a0 In a later post, I will examine what if anything can be done to rein in abuses of this sort (which, I might add, are anything but exclusive to Donald Trump).\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crime & Consequences\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CriminalJusticeLegalFoundation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-12-24T02:59:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/FB_DefaultLJ.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Otis\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651\",\"name\":\"Pardoning Your Pals - Crime & Consequences\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-12-24T02:59:17+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pardoning Your Pals\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/\",\"name\":\"Crime & Consequences\",\"description\":\"Crime and criminal law\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d089f7e65aa652190318c44070da5e6e\",\"name\":\"Bill Otis\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?author=6\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pardoning Your Pals - Crime & Consequences","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crimeandconsequences.blog\/?p=2651","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pardoning Your Pals - Crime & Consequences","og_description":"The President’s plenary power to pardon is an essential part of his authority as head of the executive branch.\u00a0 The Framers recognized that, sometimes, the reach of criminal law is too wide and too harsh, even if correct under its black letter.\u00a0 Hence the power to grant clemency. 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