Such irony: President Trump handed out pardons like they were candy
- On This Day In The Trump Administration
- May 31, 2024
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 1, 2024
May 31: On This Day In 2018
(Note: Today’s OTDI was written before yesterday’s verdict was handed down. The irony here is overwhelming. Should he win the election in ’24, he won’t be able to pardon himself for his own felony conviction in the State of New York).
Still, though, it’s good to be the president: Every president receives thousands of petitions for pardons. To help sift through the possibilities, the Office of the Pardon Attorney reviews the applications and advises the president on exercising his power. But unlike previous presidents, Trump chose to bypass this office and instead dangled or distributed pardons on his own -- in many cases just to create and maintain loyalty within his circle.
For example: OTDI 2018, Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator and ally, who had plead guilty to making illegal campaign contributions. His guilty plea notwithstanding, Trump pardoned him because—using language worthy of Oliver Wendell Holmes (if Holmes were a four-year-old)—he “was very unfairly treated.”
A dig at Obama: Later, Trump commuted the corruption sentence of disgraced Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich. Blago had been caught on tape selling Obama's old Senate seat.
Giving them out like candy: By the end of his term, Trump was handing out pardons and commutations to his allies and minions who likely possessed inside knowledge of Trump’s conduct. That partial list includes inner-circle luminaries such as Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone. The message to anyone in his orbit: If you’re trying to protect me, don’t worry about being convicted of a crime, or lying in court or Congress, because I can get you out of it. And for good measure, he even pardoned Trump Family member Charles Kushner.
And in 2025? He has threatened, if he wins in November, to pardon those rioters convicted for their acts on January 6. And last week he was at it again, trying to win votes at the Libertarian party convention by promising to commute the life sentence of a convicted felon whom some Libertarians particularly admire.
It seems unlikely that any of the other three criminal cases in which Trump has been indicted will make it to trial before November. So, for now, Trump will be stuck on just his 34 felony convictions. And while that number isn’t unprecedented, he has many more convictions than many of his friends whom he has pardoned. As he says, Trump doesn’t like to lose! So, in this game, Trump is indeed # 1
Dive Deeper
BBC reports on the D’Souza pardon
In the NYT, Peter Baker comments on Trump’s pardon strategy
NBC News has the story on the Blagojevich commutation
For a critical tour of all the Trump pardons, check out The Washington Post’s list
Summary: Trump issues pardons to friends, associates, and family like he's passing out candy