News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Despite repeatedly assuring Americans that he would not pardon his son Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden issued a sweeping reprieve for the troubled Biden scion on Sunday.
President Biden granted “a full and unconditional pardon for those offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”
As Politico reporter Betsy Woodruff Swan notes, a blanket pardon that broad and all-encompassing hasn’t been seen since President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crime he committed or may have committed during his presidency from 1969 to 1974.
Ford asserted that this sweeping pardon was necessary to allow the nation to heal from the wounds of the Watergate scandal and move on. Some historians believe that the pardon so alienated many Americans that it cost Ford the 1976 election. President Andrew Johnson pardoned Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, sparing Davis the specter of hanging for treason. Johnson’s rationale for this controversial decision was similar to Ford’s: it was necessary to bind the wounds of a nation recently reunited by force.
President Biden’s rationale for pardoning his son is more personal. He believes Hunter Biden was prosecuted unfairly because of who he is. In a statement, he wrote: “I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice… I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision.”
Whether Americans understand or accept Biden’s action is moot. The pardon power is one of the broadest and most singular powers granted to the chief executive. Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution reads: “…he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.”
That’s it. No other qualifiers. The pardon power is, literally, the power of a king. It derives from English tradition, which placed the power of mercy in the hands of the monarch. It may seem odd that a brand-new republic would enshrine monarchical power in its constitution — and, like everything else that went into that founding document, it was the subject of debate. There was actually broad consensus that there should be some power of pardon to act as a court of last resort to right miscarriages of justice. But how much power and who got to wield it was up for impassioned argument. Federalists, who favored a strong executive, supported broad presidential pardon powers, while anti-Federalists, who were suspicious of executive power, sought to constrain it, perhaps by requiring the Senate to sign off on pardons.
Virginian George Mason — the sparkplug behind the Bill of Rights — strongly opposed the President’s “power of pardoning because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself. It may happen, at some future day that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic.”
He also worried that, “If he has the power of granting pardons before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?”
Watergate — or Hunter Biden — would not have surprised George Mason. And he wouldn’t have been surprised by some of the sketchy pardons made before Joe Biden took his kid off the hook and emplaned for Angola.
In 1971, Richard Nixon pardoned Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, who was serving a 15-year prison sentence for jury tampering and fraud. In 1975, Hoffa disappeared, presumably at the hands of less-forgiving powers. Bill Clinton pardoned “fugitive financier” Marc Rich, a move that disgusted many loyalists. At the end of his first term, President Donald Trump pardoned his son-in-law’s dad, Charles Kushner, for actions then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie deemed “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted. Now Kushner is the nominee to be Ambassador to France.
There’s a reason that pardons tend to be issued in December, right before a president leaves office. Even kings might suffer a little twinge of embarrassment at the stink wafting from the throne.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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