Less than 11 hours before the end of his rule, outgoing President Donald Trump issued a series of presidential pardons, and yet he is still one of the least presidents to use this right, to renew the debate about the possibility of using these powers politically.
It is believed that these pardons may be the latest decision by Trump, who is expected to travel to Florida and not participate in the inauguration of the new president, Joe Biden.
A presidential pardon is intended to waive the right of the US state towards the perpetrator of a federal crime, as the constitution granted the president this right under the first clause of the second paragraph in Article II of the US Constitution, and the pardon is one of the forms of clemency granted to the president.
While the president's powers to pardon appear unlimited, a presidential pardon can only be granted for a federal crime, and pardons cannot be issued for impeachment cases issued by Congress or rulings and cases approved by the states.
The Ministry of Justice has included a specialized office for presidential pardons since 1893, which records pardon orders and oversees bureaucratic procedures to implement them.
Joe Arbayo accompanied President Trump before taking office (Reuters)
Series Three
The last presidential pardon orders are the third time that Trump has used this right during his four years in office.
The first series included several characters, headed by Joe Arbayo, a former police chief convicted on August 25, 2017 of discrimination and stalking of immigrants.
The amnesty for Arbayo was met with widespread criticism from political opponents, especially as Trump issued it early in his presidency.
The second series featured Charles, father-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.
Flynn had admitted to making false statements to the FBI, a crime that prompted Trump to dismiss him after 23 days of taking office in February 2017.
The opinions of experts and commentators were divided about Trump's issuance of a presidential pardon for Flynn, and some saw that what the US president had done was a constitutional right that was exercised by all American presidents, while some considered it a disgrace.
Among the most important of those included in the pardon today are a number of former lawmakers, some athletes, businessmen, and Trump friends, in addition to Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor, and Elliot Braude, a top Trump campaign fundraiser and former official in the Republican Party.
The decision to pardon Bannon was a surprise, as he criticized Trump in conversations with writer Michael Wolf as stated in his book "Fire and Fury," published before the end of 2018. The White House statement on the amnesty stated that "Bannon is an important leader in the conservative political movement. You know political acumen. "
Bannon served as Trump's chief adviser during the 2016 election campaign, then served as strategic advisor to the president for 7 months.
He was arrested on charges of violating laws to raise funds for political purposes, and diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars of funds collected to build the border barrier with Mexico for his personal use.
The amnesty provisions were divided into 73 full pardons, according to which a person is exempt from violations, and all civil rights that he loses upon conviction are restored to him, in addition to 70 partial pardons, which are for people who were convicted by federal courts, most of whom served periods of punishment, and they will be released.
Trump's presidential pardon decisions raise a number of questions about what he may achieve from a future personal benefit, at a time when a Senate trial awaits him, which could prevent him from government political action in the future.
The power of pardons
The pardons are controversial when they are made, and many experts have warned that pardons may be used more often for political expediency than to correct judicial errors.
According to US Justice Department data until the end of last November, Trump granted the right to pardon 45 times, 29 of which were final amnesties, and 16 cases in which Trump used his right to reduce the sentence, much less than his predecessor Barack Obama, who used the power to pardon. More than any CEO since Harry Truman.
Trump is one of the presidents with the least use of the right to pardon since the presidency of William McKinley in the early twentieth century.
By way of comparison, Obama granted the right to pardon 1927 times during his eight-year term, including 212 full pardons and 1,715 pardons with reduced penalties, while President George Bush Senior was one of the few presidents to grant the right to pardon, as he used this right 77 times in His term, which lasted 4 years.
Some observers expected that Trump would pardon himself, especially after he repeated, in the midst of the Russian intervention investigations in mid-2018, that he had the "absolute right" to do so according to the constitution, but CNN confirmed today that his legal advisors They warned him not to pardon himself and his family.