“Biden should issue “preemptive pardons” to people Trump has threatened to prosecute.”
— Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey (D)
“This is no hypothetical threat (preemptive pardons). The time for cautious restraint is over. We must act with urgency to push back against these threats and prevent Trump from abusing his power.”
— Pennsylvania Rep. Brendan Boyle (D)
Politico is reporting that the possibility of Joe Biden issuing a slew of preemptive blanket pardons to members of his flock is becoming a very real likelihood as President-elect Donald Trump has sworn to hold some of them to account. Who might these include?
Who might these include?
- Liz Cheney
- Mark Milley
- James Clapper
- John Brennan
- Christopher Wray
- Alvin Bragg
- Alejandro Mayorkas
- Kamala Harris
…and Joe Biden himself.
RELATED: Here’s the Discussion Reportedly Going on About More Biden Pardons – and the Big Names Being Mentioned
Okay…this is an interesting proposition. If Biden issued sweeping pardons that covered these individuals for years before and up to the present day, they might be immune from prosecution for anything they did, might have done, or might have thought about doing during their careers. Proponents of this idea say that such pardons are necessary to protect them from unlawful retribution by DJT.
As Tucker Carlson has said so many times in the past, “If they are blaming you for something, it means they are doing it themselves.”
I think he’s probably right. It was pretty clear to voters that applying a full-court legal press to Trump was just a bunch of lawfare. Now that the reins of power are about to be switched over, a lot of progressives are looking for cover. The kitchen lights have suddenly turned on in the middle of the night, and the roaches are scampering to get under the stove.
The very idea that a blanket preemptive pardon would be handed out is an anathema to the very idea of justice because it would occur before any charges were made. And it would prevent any charges from ever being leveled. As such, the idea of preemptive clemency simply gives one carte blanche to act in any manner he/she sees fit while in office, provided they have the expectation of pardon.
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I don’t see how this leads to anything but a pathway to the abuse of political power. Take Alejandro Mayorkas, for example. He’s repeatedly assured Congress that the border is secure. The border is not secure. There’s simply no question here, but in redefining the word “secure” to mean that people may flood into the country under the pretense of political persecution, get airline and bus tickets at our expense, and be released into the interior with a court date years into the future (which I doubt they will keep because no one will know where they are to hold them accountable), Mayorkas says there is a legal process for it all, and so the border is secure.
This man arguably could be prosecuted for violating Article 4, Section 4 of the US Constitution, which says the federal government is bound to protect the states from invasion. Now, some will say this is not an invasion, but that is what a trial would settle. If you cannot ever have a trial, then a guy like Mayorkas can treat the entire country like his own little fiefdom and forever change the United States culturally, socially, and legally. All on his own. And with a blanket and preemptive pardon, presidential cabinet members, NGOs, and partisan bureaucrats have the freedom to make policy that we didn’t vote for and probably never would.
What the progressives could gain, if Markey were to get his Christmas wish, is a short-term insurance policy against prosecution for guys like Mayorkas, or John Brennan, or Mark Milley, but it will set a precedent for long-term abuse by presidents in the future. Trump could employ the same tactics, and while the progs would scream and shout, there wouldn’t be much they could do about it legally, not to mention the fact that they were the ones who started rolling that snowball down the hill in the first place.
Now, for Trump, if he were to find himself in the position where he could not prosecute certain individuals for treason or malfeasance, perhaps he could at least have them investigated. The products of such interrogatories might not lead to any charges because of the pardons, but at least such “fact-finding endeavors” might illuminate what abuses (if any) actually occurred so that we could avoid more in the future. This information would be made public to the electorate, and from that, what happens happens.
Tearing down institutions and traditions tears apart a society, a country. Sure, things can evolve over time, but to rip stuff out by the roots all at once is very reckless. Issuing preemptive pardons before any charges are even leveled prevents justice because we never have an opportunity to find out if it was ever being served in the first place. Did Mayorkas break the border all of his own volition just because he felt like it? Was he instructed to do it? If so, by whom? Who does he report to? Oh…the president.
Shouldn’t those questions be posed and answered in a formal setting that compels him to answer truthfully? I think so.
