The authority to pardon for offenses against the United States (Article 2, Sec. 2 of the Constitution) was inserted as a vestige of authorities granted to the English Crown. It was scantly debated at the Constitutional Convention and one might suspect that the framers did not anticipate the rogues gallery of individuals and corporations that have received the benefit of the offer. Controversial pardons hale back to the time of George Washington (who pardoned the perpetrators of the Whiskey Rebellion on his way out the door) and accelerated in the latter half of the 20th century (with Ford’s pardon of Nixon, Carter’s pardon of Vietnam ‘draft dodgers’, and Bush’s pardon of Iran-Contra Affair related offenses). The most controversial pardons have historically taken place during the final days of a President’s term (during their most unanswerable period of office). Most pardons were granted to individuals who expressed remorse for their crimes.

President Trump has turned the pardon tradition on its head. To date, he has pardoned over 1500 people. The lion’s share of the count were those convicted of crimes related to January 6th, 2021 (included assault and seditious conspiracy). But the criminals pardoned after that initial swath represent equally shameful activity at odds with American values. Political cronyism, favoritism to popular figures, and borderline emoluments are mixed in with a who’s who of fraudsters, none of whom scream of redemption stories. As much as the administration claims the ‘law and order’ mantle, the President wishes to make it very clear that he is the ultimate arbiter of the law.

The President is attracted to popular figures, and this plays a role in his pardon decisions. In his first term, he pardoned Alice Marie Johnson (convicted of cocaine conspiracy and money laundering crimes) in response to a personal plea made by Kim Kardashian. Now Johnson is the official in the Trump administration in charge of reviewing and recommending pardons. High profile felons continue to be popular candidates for pardon into his second term, with pardoning of rapper NBA Youngboy. The rapper was charged with a gun crime (he is an ex-felon) and had been convicted of operating a prescription drug fraud ring out of his home. The President provided a full pardon to his convicted supporter Rod Blagojevich (former governor of Illinois, convicted of corruption, including trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat after his election to the presidency). The latest celebrity pardons were granted Friday to Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality TV personalities that were convicted of fraud and tax evasion to the tune of $36M. When released, Todd Chrisley expressed no remorse – a quality that the administration likely found admirable.

Political pardons are a tradition for Presidents of both political parties – Trump is no exception. Former Republican Congressman Michael Grimm, convicted of tax fraud for underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he owned, was pardoned. A Republican Nevada elected, Michele Fiori, was convicted of wire fraud for stealing $70,000 from funds she raised for a first responder memorial – and spent on rent, plastic surgery, and her daughter’s wedding (not the memorial, which had already found funding) – pardoned by the President. And in the tradition of nullifying the will of Congress, the President pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists who blockaded clinics and harassed patients and staff in violation of a 30 year old law expressly prohibiting this activity (the FACE Act). Pardons that excuse behavior in the name of political fealty.

This administration has made much of its war on drugs. They have blamed Canada and Mexico for the influx of fentanyl into the US and place large tariffs of imports because of it (their reasoning, not mine). But the pardon ledger tells another story. Ross Ulbricht was the founder of Silk Road, a dark web site that enabled over $200M in illegal drug sales. Rather than celebrate that a drug trafficker was locked up for life, Ulbricht was pardoned (as the administration claimed that the conviction was an example of ‘weaponization’.) The $184M fine that was imposed on Ulbricht at the time of his conviction was satisfied from a recovered bitcoin horde that had been stolen from Silk Road. Ulbricht signed away his claim to that bitcoin, so it is unlikely that he will get his fine monies back after his pardon (but with this DOJ, who knows?). Just this past week, the President pardoned Larry Hoover, a drug-lord from Chicago (who was championed for release by Ye, the Nazi-praising rapper). That brings the total of people who have been pardoned for drug crimes to 13 – in less than 6 months.

The most frequent term used in convictions of those pardoned by President Trump is fraud. Devon Archer was convicted (during Trump’s first term) of defrauding the Oglala Sioux Nation of roughly $60M and ordered to forfeit $15.7M and pay restitution of the remaining $43M. HDR Global Trading (and its executives) were fined criminally ($100M) for flaunting anti-money laundering laws. Trevor Milton, mega-donor to the Trump campaign, was convicted of wire and securities fraud, with a $1M fine in addition to being ordered to pay $168M in restitution (plus 4 yrs in prison – he was out on bail as his case was appealed). Jason Galanis was convicted of fraud against another group of investors (in addition to his fraud scheme with Devon Archer – because why commit a multi-million dollar fraud once when you can do it repeatedly), and ordered to forfeit $80M and pay $80M in restitution. There’s more, but you get the picture. All of these men were pardoned for their fraudulent schemes and will no longer be on the hook for the restitution or any unpaid fines. Because in the case of fraud, it’s all about who you know.

It’s also about how much you are willing to spend to get a pardon. Paul Walczak was convicted of skimming money off of tax withholdings of his employees at his nursing homes. To avoid prison and a $4.4M restitution fine, his mother (a Republican fundraiser) paid $1M for a seat at a Mar-a-Lago fundraising dinner with the President. Within days of the meet and greet, Walczak got the gift they were seeking – a pardon. No, the American taxpayer will not be recovering that $4.4M in skimmed off tax payments. In fact, it is pretty clear that there is a price tag for influence in this administration. Trump literally sold access to a dinner with him (only briefly) to a group of investors in a meme coin that had paid $148M for the privilege of attending. Lobbyists are already lining up for their criminal clients to get pardon attention. Essentially, there is no bottom to how low this Presidency will go – it’s unpardonable.

And the national disgrace continues…