At the behest of his new celebrity pal Kim Kardashian, the president is leaning towards pardoning Alice Marie Johnson, who is serving a life-sentence for drug possession and money laundering. As The Washington Post notes, this is the latest example of Trump’s newfound fascination with the pardon power.
“Trump has recently become intensely focused on his ability to grant pardons, asking his lawyers to compile a list of candidates,” the newspaper reports. “A White House official this week said Trump is ‘obsessed’ with pardons, describing them as the president’s new ‘favorite thing’ to talk about. He may sign a dozen or more in the next two months, this person added.”
The danger, of course, is that Trump will use the pardon power to thwart special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump could pardon his cronies or even (as he has suggested) himself.
Trump’s pardon fixation has sparked a conversation on Twitter between Brookings Institution fellow Susan Hennessey and Vox writer Matthew Yglesias.
Trump's obsession with pardons and intention to sign a dozen more in coming weeks seems like a significant nugget. https://t.co/9M0aGpqS07 pic.twitter.com/HTHqmlE9AX
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 5, 2018
The pardon situation has been crying out for a constitutional amendment for decades, but Trump is really showing us why. https://t.co/DX2fjdXgR2
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 5, 2018
I disagree. The pardon power is necessary in an imperfect justice system. Hard to imagine meaningful constitutional constraints that wouldn't cripple it. The problem is that the political constraints, which functioned reasonably well in the past, are coming completely unglued. https://t.co/0wylGTI5UQ
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 5, 2018
The “lame duck” loophole to the political constraints — exploited by George HW Bush to grant impunity to Iran-Contra crooks and by Bill Clinton to do shady repayment of political favors — has been a big problem for a long time.
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 5, 2018
There have definitely been abusive pardons in the past. But limitations that keep things to the final days have the successfully prevented the systemic abuse we are seeing here.
— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) June 5, 2018