You can totally pardon someone for something they haven’t been convicted of. For example, Biden did this for him, his family, and others when he left office.
I assume there must be a mechanism that could be created to remove pardons though? If someone like Trump just pardons everyone for doing crimes for him, there must be a way to say they were corrupt, and they don’t offer protections.
He knows he’ll get confirmed anyway and whatever he does he’ll get a presidential pardon.
Not necessarily. A president can pardon someone who was legally convicted. He can’t bottle a pardon for later.
So if after Trump the big cleanup will come, they all will have to face consequences, until some idiot later president will pardon them.
Of course they can. Nixon wasn’t convicted, or even charged, yet Ford pardoned him.
It’s highly improbably, but couldn’t in theory Trump use his justice department to convict everyone and then pardon em?
You can totally pardon someone for something they haven’t been convicted of. For example, Biden did this for him, his family, and others when he left office.
I assume there must be a mechanism that could be created to remove pardons though? If someone like Trump just pardons everyone for doing crimes for him, there must be a way to say they were corrupt, and they don’t offer protections.
Sounds like you’re both right - you can pardon people for things they have done, not things they will do. This ain’t the church after all.
Yeah, definitely not things you may do in the future, that’s for sure.
Vietnam draft dodgers were pardoned without charges or convictions.
After Trump will be more regressive autocrats because America was spineless in 2024.