At the time of this writing, President Trump is expected to grant up to 100 pardon/commutation/clemency requests before his term officially expires at noon. The related claim is that Trump and allies are playing a ‘pay for pardon’ game in which tens of thousands of dollars are being paid to make that final list.
While the smarminess of the scheme sounds exactly like something Trump would be in on, right now there is nothing that indicates he is receiving payment for issuing pardons. Friends, allies and other connected individuals, however, have accepted money in return for lobbying Trump for a pardon on a person’s behalf.
But as The New York Times reports: “Few regulations or disclosure requirements govern presidential clemency grants or lobbying for them, particularly by lawyers, and there is nothing illegal about Trump associates being paid to lobby for clemency. Any explicit offers of payment to the president in return could be investigated as possible violations of bribery laws; no evidence has emerged that Mr. Trump was offered money in exchange for a pardon.”
We’ve certainly been disappointed — sometimes even disgusted — by Trump’s pardons to date, many of which included close allies and war criminals, but while Trump’s approach to granting clemency is morally reprehensible and ethically questionable, his actions are not illegal.
Now, the real question on everyone’s mind is will Trump pre-emptively pardon himself and/or his adult children. We’ll know the answer to that by noon today.
