So one of the last things Trump did was pardon a whole shitton of scumbags.

[conuly]

But not himself, because you can't do that.

Anyway, putting his self-serving pardons aside, I have a serious question about how pardons work. Theoretically, could an incoming president say "Look, we all know that the War on Drugs is both racist and bullshit, and also racist bullshit" and then grant a blanket pardon to everybody convicted of possession? Or would this president have to issue all the pardons individually?

Comments

[calimac]

I was a little surprised that he didn't pardon the rioters at the Capitol whom the FBI and other police sources have kindly identified by name. But then I shouldn't have been surprised that he didn't do it: they only rioted for him, they didn't give him thousands of dollars.

[redbird]

I suspect that's some combination of them not having anything else to offer him, and the idea that if they'd been pardoned, they wouldn't have been able to plead the Fifth Amendment if summoned into court to testify against him.