President Trump abuses his pardon power

President Donald Trump in his second term has been wielding his explicit constitutional power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States more often and more controversially than most of his predecessors.

Because a president’s ultimate power in this regard has mostly gone trusted and unchecked since the founding of the republic, Trump can’t be required to explain or answer how the presumed standards of justice, fairness or mercy might have driven his decisions.

Over 15 months, Trump has already issued more pardons than did any president in a half-century for the first two full years of their terms.

The Trump numbers got their initial surge on day one with a blanket grant of pardons and clemency of about 1,500 people associated with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — which arose from bizarre and illegal first-term MAGA efforts to nullify the election Trump lost two months earlier.

Many of the convictions most recently nixed by Trump seem to resonate with his own financial interests and those of his family members. While past presidents have made dubious choices, Trump stands alone in the scope and scale.

A prime example: Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao was cleared of his 2023 guilty plea to anti-money laundering violations. Binance has business ties to a Trump crypto venture. Lobbyist Ches McDowell, a friend of Donald Trump Jr., pushed for the pardon.

Other crypto transgressors have been similarly rewarded.

The way this is being done is distressing. The administration makes no effort to assure the public that these pardons are honestly weighed by any meritorious standard.

Last year Trump’s pardon attorney, Ed Martin, arrogantly and without apology boasted the base motto “no MAGA left behind,” meaning the politically loyal will be spared jail time. So it was no surprise that Trump giddily blurted in a recent meeting that top aides would get preemptive pardons before he leaves office. “I’ll pardon everyone who has come within 200 feet of the Oval,” he reportedly said.

A spokeswoman tried to call this humorous. For those victimized, however, the real-life message is no laughing matter. New Jersey nursing home magnate Joseph Schwartz, whose multi-property enterprise collapsed in mismanagement, is a glaring example.

Schwartz was convicted in a $39 million tax fraud scheme but granted clemency three months into a 3-year prison term. Now families of neglected and harmed patients awarded millions from lawsuits remain unable to collect from him.

Schwartz paid more than $1 million to lobbyists to help his cause. “Apparently he’s got money somewhere,” one of the plaintiffs told ProPublica.

Trump’s dozens of white-collar pardons will leave more than $1 billion in fines, penalties and restitution unpaid, according to a Democratic staff report from the House Judiciary Committee. That could drain the federal government’s crime-victim compensation program, funded by criminal forfeitures.

The report notes that the pre-Trump Justice Department policy for evaluating clemency requests required that those seeking them “accepted responsibility for his or her criminal conduct” and made restitution to victims.

The problem isn’t just money. One man pardoned for his role in Jan. 6, Andrew Paul Johnson, since received a life sentence for sexually abusing children. Last month, pardoned Jan. 6 participant Bryan Betancur of Maryland was charged with assault and battery on a Metro train.

In November, Jonathan Braun of Lawrence, whose 10-year drug smuggling and money laundering sentence was commuted by Trump, was imprisoned again after authorities said he committed physical and sexual assaults in Nassau County. His family reportedly used connections with Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner’s family to get Braun released in the original case.

Unrestricted pardon power — the exception is impeachment — allows the president to cancel criminal cases without regard to law and order. Even pro-MAGA ex-Rep. George Santos, who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and identity theft, had an 87-month sentence commuted after three months.

Since this power is set in Article II of the Constitution, revising it would take a constitutional amendment, a daunting multiyear process.

Proposed fixes are discussed anyway. One amendment pushed by Reps. Johnny Olszewski (D-Md.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) would grant Congress authority to review and reject presidential pardons.

Some suggest that short of an amendment, Congress could scrutinize what led up to controversial pardons, and federal bribery statutes could come into play if a corrupt deal is involved.

Legal curbs are needed when the nation’s top elected official implies that lawbreakers connected to himself are to be rendered immune from prosecution.

The public can now see that blithely trusting any president as a sole arbiter of clemency risks cynical abuses of power. Congress must have hearings on presidential use of the pardon power to start the process of change.