Professor Jed Shugerman, in an op-ed in Politico, discusses how pardons from President Trump will affect the next administration and their validity.
It is now pardon-panic season, with legal commentators and Trump critics worried that his pardons will subvert any efforts to hold his administration and family to account for misdeeds. Will he also test the limits of the Constitution as well, and pardon himself? How much should we worry?
Of course, Trump abusing his power in unprecedented and corrupt ways is a big deal, but his critics should put this worry on the back burner. Of all Donald Trump’s voluminous attacks on the rule of law as president, a last-minute pardon spree would be one of the least effectual—and perhaps even a gift to President-elect Joe Biden.
The panic about Trump’s pardons is already counterproductive, producing too many unforced errors by journalists and legal commentators. It has become almost an article of faith among Trump’s critics—especially among the many former prosecutors on TV—that accepting one of his pardons amounts to an admission of guilt.