Nixon Lawyer: Donald Trump Abused Pardon Power When He Freed Joe Arpaio

During the last two days of his embattled presidency, Richard Nixon made a rare principled decision. With the Watergate special prosecutor and congressional impeachment proceedings closing in, he rejected last-minute requests for pardons from his two former top aides, the men who could most damagingly testify against him. Unfortunately, while dust is settling on Donald Trump’s pardon of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, its message suggests a much cruder view of the pardon power, and sets a dangerous precedent for the months to come. Most pardons attract little attention. Over the course of a presidency, typical presidents, with the advice of the Department of Justice, pardon or commute the sentences of hundreds of people who have moved beyond their crimes, and long after all investigations have ended. Sometimes, presidents issue pardons to try to help the nation move past bitter divisions, such Gerald Ford’s pardon of Nixon and Jimmy Carter’s general pardon of Vietnam draft dodgers. And occasionally, presidents issue pardons to friends, relatives, or supporters, and even at the request of a foreign government, such as Bill Clinton’s controversial pardon of fugitive financier Marc Rich. But never has a president embroiled in scandal used the pardon power to protect himself. Nixon’s refusal provides useful history. On March 1, 1974, a federal grand jury indicted former chief of staff H.R. Haldeman, former chief domestic advisor John Ehrlichman, ...
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