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

[hudebnik]

Steve Bannon was just "pardoned for something that [he hadn't] been convicted for" -- only indicted. But the article points out that that's quite unusual.

[shadowkat]

Yeah, it's not clear whether that will hold up or not. It's why the White House Council tried to talk him out of it. Also, by doing so - it's akin to stating he was guilty. What's also unusual is this is the first time the pardons were done with being vetted first through the Justice Department, etc. There's a few others that fit under the "clemency" version - which is they haven't exactly served any time and either were just convicted or about to be - and their sentence falls under clemency - ie. commuted or forgiven. That's the "draft dodgers" blanket pardon which Carter granted - it fell under "clemency" and the Supreme Court may hold up Trump's pardon of Bannon for the same reasons, along with a few of the others. Most aren't that unusual.