Pardon me for writing this but the fact is, ‘pardons’ seem to be all the rage these days – at least in reported conversations around the White House. Let’s see, where do I start? It was reported yesterday that the DOJ is investigating a scheme in which alleged bribes were finding their way to the White House or related PAC in exchange for a presidential pardon.1 According to the article, part of the filing, in heavily redacted form, was made public by the DC District Court. Just when you thought this administration couldn’t get any more corrupt – surprise!!
I was wondering why the DC District Court would make this public but then it dawned on me that perhaps the court is firing a ‘warning shot’ over the bow of the ‘good ship Trump.’ Perhaps it was a message to say, ‘if you really go through with this, we’ve already got the goods and we are watching you like a hawk.”
When you look back over the last four years of the Trump administration and add up all of the people who were associates of the president in one way or another, the number of them who have been indicted is pretty remarkable. Given that, this whole alleged scheme should surprise no one.
There are also reports that Rudy Guiliani, the president’s personal attorney, has asked for a preemptive presidential pardon before Trump leaves office. It is public knowledge that Guiliani is under investigation for some of his lobbying efforts and some of the efforts associated with trying to dig up dirt on Joe Biden from the Ukraine.
In addition to Guiliani, there are reports that Trump is exploring issuing preemptive pardons for all of his adult children and Jared Kushner. If Trump were to do this, he would certainly couch it in terms of ‘self-defense’ with all kinds of bullshit about how the Biden administration would go after all of them for ‘revenge.’ Given that Biden will put someone in the Attorney General’s office who will actually operate with the independence that the DOJ previously (before Trump) operated, that allegation is a real stretch.
Granting such pardons, however, is a bit of a slippery slope. If he does grant pardons to his children, Guiliani and a few other close associates there is a large segment of the population who are going to view this as ‘proof’ that the Trump administration is, in fact, rife with corruption. His most rabid supporters will believe the line that he is doing so to protect these people from political revenge. However, these ‘preemptive pardons will have to have enough specificity about the alleged crimes that they will actually stand up against any future Federal charges. Since these preemptive pardons are only good for Federal charges, you can bet that various state officials like the New York Attorney General will be looking at these pardons for clues to help their ongoing investigations. The whole thing is just beyond sordid and a huge embarrassment to the United States.
Presidents in the past have granted some controversial pardons. Ford pardoned Richard Nixon which was a very unpopular move. Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a fugitive billionaire – again a very unpopular move. Clinton also pardoned his brother, although his brother’s crimes were for relatively minor drug offenses. The pardons granted previously, however, generally had to do with crimes that had already been committed and for which the individuals had been found guilty.
What Trump is allegedly considering, is granting pardons for his family and close associates for crimes which might have already have been committed but for which these individuals have not yet been indicted. Of course, it would have been a waste of time to indict any of these individuals while Trump was in office because he would have just pardoned them immediately, e.g. Roger Stone, Michael Flynn, etc.
If Trump (or Pence) grants these types of preemptive pardons, it will completely undercut any statements that the United States makes about other countries and corruption. There is a German based nonprofit organization called Transparency International that monitors and tries to rally support against corruption around the world. Every year they publish something called the Corruption Perception Index (CPI) and rank countries according to that index. The top country (out of 179 ranked) in 2019 was Denmark followed by New Zealand. These are the countries where the perception of corruption is the least.
At the bottom of the list are those countries where corruption is perceived to be rampant. The bottom three countries on the list are Somalia, South Sudan and Syria. That shouldn’t really come as a big surprise. And, of course, Trump’s ‘friends’ don’t rank very well on this list as well: North Korea (172), Russia (137), Phillipines (113). And where is the United States? The US is currently ranked 23rd. I suspect given all of this nonsense created by Trump about a ‘rigged election’ and if he ices that cake with preemptive pardons for his kids and close associates, that the US ranking according to the Transparency International CPI will fall further.
I and many others have talked about the substantial legal jeopardy Trump and his family face when he leaves office. I have no doubt that there will be indictments coming for various and sundry financial crimes associated with the Trump organizations. When Trump leaves office and the house of cards begins to fall, I believe this president, his family and his administration will be exposed as the most corrupt in American history. I beg your pardon!
Trump has recently looked into a Trump Tower in Indonesia. If he goes to Russia he can spend his winters in Indonesia playing golf to avoid extradition to the USA. He will probably take his whole family with him.