Trump pardons haven’t steered clear of politics
Critics concerned he’ll protect campaign circle
WASHINGTON – In granting his fifth pardon Thursday, President Trump showed he’ll use his clemency power to correct what he perceives as unjust, politically motivated prosecutions.
On an Air Force One flight to Houston, Trump pardoned conservative commentator Dinesh D’Souza for making illegal campaign contributions — then said he was considering presidential clemency for former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and lifestyle guru Martha Stewart.
The White House characterized each of those cases as righting a wrong and correcting an injustice.
“That’s a power outlined by the Constitution, one in which he understands the gravity,” deputy spokesman Hogan Gidley said.
Trump’s pardon talk comes amid
federal investigations into his own campaign and inner circle — including an inquiry into whether his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, violated the law when he illegally paid off an adult film star who said she had a relationship with Trump.
“The president’s ad hoc use of the pardon power is concerning enough,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. “But the possibility that he may also be sending a message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into his campaign is extremely dangerous.”
Trump’s use of the pardon power to help political allies is hardly unprecedented, but previous presidents granted their most controversial pardons in their last months — or even their last hours — in office. Trump has done so early in his presidency, and in an extraordinarily public way.
Trump announced the D’Souza pardon Thursday on Twitter as he headed to Texas on Air Force One.
During the flight, he said Blagojevich’s attempt to sell Barack Obama’s former Senate seat after Obama became president was “a stupid thing to say” but not worth 18 years in prison. Blagojevich, a Democrat, appeared on Trump’s reality television show Celebrity Apprentice in 2010.
“The president’s ad hoc use of the pardon power is concerning enough. But the possibility that he may also be sending a message to witnesses in a criminal investigation into his campaign is extremely dangerous.”
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va.
Trump said a pardon of Stewart also crossed his mind. Stewart, the head of a publishing and television empire who hosted a spinoff of The Apprentice, was convicted of obstructing justice in an investigation into insider trading in 2004.
“I think to a certain extent, Martha Stewart was harshly and unfairly treated. And she used to be my biggest fan in the world — before I became a politician,” Trump said. “But that’s OK. I don’t view it that way.”
D’Souza pleaded guilty to making “straw donations” in the names of others to support the candidacy of Republican New York Senate candidate Wendy Long, who lost to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in 2012. Those straw donations allowed him to give $20,000 in illegal contributions to the campaign, exceeding the $5,000 legal limit.
Trump’s attorney may also face federal charges of exceeding campaign contribution limits and failing to disclose a $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels, an adult-film star who claims she had an extramarital relationship with Trump in 2006. Trump denied there was an affair.
Rick Hasen, a University of California-Irvine law professor who specializes in election law, said the pardon sends “yet another signal to Michael Cohen and others about the possibility of a Trump pardon.”
Sixteen months into his presidency, Trump has pardoned more people than any other president since George H.W. Bush in 1989.
His pardons include former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, pardoned for contempt of court, and former Bush White House aide Scooter Libby for lying to the FBI in a leak investigation.
Last week, Trump gave a rare posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the former heavyweight boxing champion convicted in 1913 of racially motivated charges related to his relationship with a white woman.
Like all of those recipients, D’Souza did not apply for a pardon with the Office of the Pardon Attorney, the Justice Department unit that conducts investigations of pardon cases and sends recommendations to the president.
Under Justice Department rules, D’Souza would be ineligible for the application process because he’s on probation.
Likewise, neither Blagojevich nor Stewart has applied for clemency.
The president’s constitutional authority to pardon is not bound by those rules, so Trump has granted politically charged pardons, though he denied 180 applications from people who applied through the Justice Department.