Bill Clinton was on The View today and was asked: “Do you think it would be wise of President Biden to preemptively pardon any potential targets? What about your wife?”
It’s actually a tough question.
One of those double-binds where you have trouble if you say Yes and you also have trouble if you say No.
So Bill chose to defiantly say (with a straight face) that Hillary did nothing wrong!
And he even got kind of mad about it.
Watch here:
He went on to call it a “Fool’s Errand” to waste time trying to get even.
Oh, I get it Bill….
After President Trump chose NOT to prosecute Hillary despite a mandate to “Lock Her Up” — choosing the high road instead — and then Democrats chose to spend the last 4 years applying every form of lawfare known to man against President Trump in return…..that was all ok, but now we should all just shift to “don’t waste your time trying to get even.”
Pretty hilarious!
You can watch the full segment here (if you can stomach it):
What are your thoughts?
Meanwhile, people are still calling the Hunter Biden pardon unprecedented on its own:
Potentially creating new and even bigger challenges:
And some are seeing a new wave of sweeping, preemptive pardons may be Unconstitutional:
- Scope of Pardon Power:
- The Constitution grants the President the power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment” (Article II, Section 2). While this power is broad, it has traditionally been interpreted to apply to specific offenses known to the law. Issuing preemptive pardons for unspecified future crimes could be seen as extending beyond this traditional understanding, effectively nullifying the checks and balances inherent in the legal system. The historical precedent, such as Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, was for specific acts related to Watergate, not for any potential future crime.
- Precedent and Judicial Interpretation:
- Legal scholars and historical precedents suggest that pardons are generally understood to apply to offenses that have already been committed or at least identified. The Supreme Court case Ex parte Garland (1866) affirmed that the power of the pardon is unlimited except in cases of impeachment but did not extend to pardons for acts not yet committed or even specified. There’s a significant difference between pardoning known offenses and creating a blanket shield for hypothetical future crimes, which could be seen as an abuse of executive power.
- Separation of Powers:
- A mass issuance of preemptive pardons could infringe on the separation of powers. By potentially immunizing his administration from judicial scrutiny, Biden would be preempting the judicial branch’s role in determining guilt or innocence. This could be interpreted as an unconstitutional expansion of executive authority, effectively allowing the President to control what should be the independent operation of the judiciary.
- Potential for Abuse:
- The argument against such pardons also rests on the potential for abuse, where future administrations might use this as a precedent to protect themselves from accountability, thereby undermining the rule of law. If every administration could preemptively pardon its members for any future legal action, it would fundamentally alter the balance of power and the accountability mechanisms established by the Constitution.
- Constitutional Intent:
- The framers of the Constitution did not explicitly provide for the use of pardons to prevent prosecution of future, unspecified crimes. The intent was likely to provide mercy or correct judicial errors for offenses already committed, not to shield administration members from potential future legal accountability. This broad application of the pardon power could be argued to contradict the spirit and intent of the constitutional design.
- Legal Challenges:
- Should such pardons be issued, they might face legal challenges where the courts would have to interpret whether this use of the pardon power aligns with constitutional principles. While no such challenge has directly tested this scenario, the implications could lead to a Supreme Court decision questioning the constitutionality based on the above arguments.
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