Conservatives Want Biden to Pardon Trump: It Should Be Strongly Considered

Please allow a few caveats before even touching such a controversial topic. First, under no circumstances do I trust myself to make the decision on this matter. I have neither the experience nor the insight or wisdom. I do believe I am qualified to say that the idea below should be thoroughly reviewed and considered by the right person  – President Biden. Additionally, I would only advocate a limited and defined problem to be evaluated, not some unilateral and blanket act that wholly constrains all future considerations. With those strong cautions in mind, one must objectively consider whether Joe Biden should grant incoming President Trump a limited pardon.

The question arises in the context of an article written by Marc Thiessen and Danielle Pletka in The Washington Post. The pair write:

“From a legal standpoint, Trump does not need a presidential pardon. Special counsel Jack Smith is in the process of shutting down his federal investigations. If Smith does not close his cases, Trump can simply fire him the second he takes office. At the state level, Biden has no pardon power, but the cases against Trump appear to be falling apart.”

The cases aren’t so much falling apart as being made moot by the election. Whether they should be moot is beyond the scope of this article. In a perfect world everyone faces the same scrutiny by objective prosecutors who apply the same standard to all. We aren’t in that world and likely never will be given the power of money, prejudices, and media influence. So let’s step into this reality. To that end, the authors move on to a more compelling argument:

“Absent decisive action, we could find ourselves at the start of a vicious cycle, in which Republicans now argue they are justified in weaponizing the justice system to go after Democrats, and Democrats then feel free to retaliate when they regain power — sending the country spiraling into a miasma of partisan litigation.”

One of the hallmarks of a dictatorship is the ever-present need to throw your political rivals in prison. I absolutely understand that only authoritarians violently attack the Capital in the face of a loss. It is also true that being president isn’t a free pass to do whatever one wants free from fear of the law. But given the entire context of the situation on the ground – Trump will be president, he won a fair election – there is an opportunity to bring even the temptation to retaliate to a stop. Biden can put his foot down and say that we must now move forward.

It might be the only thing Joe Biden can do to bring about some unity going into the near future. (I did not say “good” going forward, only unity). Should Biden have to do something to bring everyone together? Of course, not. But that doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be a productive step in the long run. We could soon be at war, which is a good time to unite on the most basic premise of all. Are we one country? So there is some utility in considering whether a pardon is useful in uniting the nation.

There is also a pragmatic reason. Ironically, it may not be something they even should be considering but goes hand in hand with the above. It would challenge the new administration as to whether they should turn around and immediately politically prosecute their predecessors as nothing more than retaliation. A pardon better well take the wind wholly out of their sails or we’re in real trouble. Again, only dictatorships prosecute citizens for simply aligning on the other side. It would force the incoming Attorney General and others to decide whether this country should start criminalizing politics.

But there is a huge caveat. Any pardon even considered should only cover crimes that could arise out of facts known right now. If the nation discovers wholly new problematic allegations that the Trump administration (Or the Biden administration, for that matter) took a ton of cash to engage in anything – those are new facts covering new allegations outside any pardon put up for review now. Again, it’s not a blanket “You are free from any consequences of your past” – no, that’s obviously not appropriate nor wanted. This would be a limited pardon based on what the voters knew when they went into the ballot box.

Again, I’m not qualified to make this call. I don’t know the limits of what should be considered nor the ultimate future impact. If someone forced me to make the decision, I’d immediately convene an extremely diverse board full of smart and sensitive people to make a recommendation. I suspect that Joe Biden, even with decades of service, will do something similar if it is to be considered.

I do believe that a limited pardon – subject to everything above is worth evaluating. I think that anyone who simply waves a hand with a sneer without deeply concentrating on all considerations has very little to add. Indeed, the decision is of such a magnitude going forward that a lot of time best be taken by anyone and… It really must be given strong consideration. I know we’re not in a good place right now standing still.

God Bless: I can be reached at [email protected] (Now the inbox will fill up) and @JasonMiciak and on Blue Sky – the new good one. 

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