Just fuck and get it over with.
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Clear pattern of pardon abuse established, with criminals who defended him, or are close to him, getting treatment they really should not. Hopefully it exposes them to state prosecutions in future, as the Presidential pardon can only protect them from federal crimes. Also, accepting a pardon is at least a tacit admission of guilt, which hopefully opens up the prospect of future prosecution.
It is massively unsatisfactory.
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Can Presidential Pardons be overturned? I get that the person can be tried in State courts but can the next President say ‘fuck you, I’m overturning this shit’?
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I still find this whole concept of presidential pardons both bizarre and a real concern. Why is it even a thing? Surely it’s just an invitation to do exactly what Trump has done getting where he is and now wiping the slate clean.
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I think, like many things in US politics, it’s a well intentioned but poorly executed protection against the judiciary that relies on the President conforming to norms.
The Republicans have done nothing but exploit these weak constitutional areas for decades now.
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To your point with a twist, @Sweeting:
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Not entirely familiar with the minor technicalities of a presidential pardon, but a couple of things come to mind.
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Can a presidential pardon be overturned by a future president/AG if enough evidence of a crime is found?
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Should the current President be offering pardons for things happening during his precidency or should pardons only be allowed to be used for previous presidencies? ie. Trump can’t offer a pardon for anything happening during his term, but could offer a pardon for something that happened prior to him taking office, so anything happening under Trump would then be for Biden to decide if they should be pardoned?
Or would that pave a path for too much potential corruption and cronnism?
On point 1, I do not think a pardon can be overturned in future as a President can pardon someone for crimes they have not yet been convicted, or even investigated, for. I believe his pardon of Michael Flynn is an example of this.
Point 2 would require a consistutional amendment and that just isn’t going to happen especially when the constitution is broken but broken in favour of the Republicans.
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Rumour now that Trump is going to pardon Robert Bales. Bales is, in every sense of the word, an evil man. He admitted to the murder of 16 civilians in an Afghan village and then burning their bodies. He put his gun to the side of a toddler’s head and shot her. He has had advocacy groups petitioning for him because he was a soldier and for some people “American Soldier = Good”. He is a murderer and an evil man.
Like I’ve said a few times already Trump is using the deaths of non-white people to play to his base. Trump is looking past this presidency now. He is building, for some reason, a cult of white nationalist followers.
90% of people, even those who voted for him, will be repulsed by some of these pardons. Some voted for him to “drain the swamp” but see him pardoning the literal swamp monsters like Manafort and Stone. Some don’t care about his political pardons but will be horrified by the murderers he is putting back on the street.
It’s irrelevant though. He doesn’t need 70 million people to like him anymore. He knows the more racist, the more vile, the more repulsive, the more openly vindictive, the more abusive, the more civil war baiting, the more terrorist inciting and the more openly hostile to the USA he is then that will only further cement his support within the far right.
The question is no longer “Is he actually doing this?” but “Why is he doing this?”. To me the answer is depressingly simple. Money. Everytime he loses in court, everytime he pardons someone who killed brown people, everytime he orders an accelerated execution of black people on death row his campaign send out e-mails to his subscriber list begging - sometimes threatening - for donations. He has raised well over $200m from small donations since election day by inciting fear and hatred in his supporter base.
This man has led the United States to the precipice of a civil war - maybe not literally but psychologically - and he has done it so that he can profit from the chaos. He is the greatest grifter and scam artist in history. He should die in prison.
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Thanks, sounds like the constitution is a bit messed up in itself in giving such powers to a President. I might be taking it to an extreme, but it sounds like a sitting president could autherise someone to assasinate their rival, then give themselves and the assissin a presidential pardon thereby never facing punishment
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The only limit there is that if the pardon is part of the crime, the president may be criminally liable for it.
This is a real issue with the Manafort pardon.
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WOW. House GOP (i.e. Trump crazy rump of it) blocked unanimous consent fast track for the stimulus/relief/govt funding bill.
US Government has funding until Monday evening.
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When they said civil war, I hadn’t thought they meant within the GOP. 
Maybe we have the first baby step to a third party or four parties.
Scenario 1: Trumpublicans, GOP (self-proclaimed sane conservatives), Dems, Progressives
Scenario 2: Trumpublicans, GOP/Dems coalition (fake Neoliberals something or the other), Progressives
Or most likely maybe we have nothing at all as usual.
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Actually, it appears to split along two lines: GOP who are fine with the increased cheques, stop spending GOP types, and Trump loyalists who want Trump to get exactly what he wants.
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Manafort, Stone. These pardons smell. The pardoning and granting clemency for war atrocities adjudicated by due process, that’s a terrible low for our country.
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I want one of those pardons for crimes not yet committed
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Meanwhile, Leonard Peltier is 76 years old
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But if the president pardons himself, would there be anything to stop that?
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