Pardon Us

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Feb. 1, 2025

Presidents have near absolute power to issue pardons or commutations for those convicted of federal crimes. Actually, they can issue such clemency for those already convicted of crimes, those currently on trial, or even preemptively for future crimes.

Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of our constitution spells out this power clearly with exemptions for impeachment, state crimes, and civil actions. But for federal crimes, the power is close to absolute with neither a check nor a balance.

The result has been a history of clemency for convicted presidential pals, sleazebag fundraisers, scam artists of all sorts, white collar thieves, and, more recently, those committing acts of real violence.

Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter after telling us he would not. He also pardoned him from future prosecutions for his sleazy dealings with foreign governments, alleged drug use, and sloppy firearm handling. He also preemptively pardoned those who were investigating the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol Donald Trump said he would prosecute for having done their job.

Biden was accused of loosing murderers on the streets but we can rest easy; in one instance the man was convicted of manslaughter and in the other there has always been doubt as to whether he was involved at all in the deaths of two FBI agents long ago. (The man is now 80, suffering from cancer, not really a threat.)

Which brings us to President Donald Trump’s use of the pardon privilege.

He has pardoned or commuted the sentences of more than 1,600 people involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection despite more than 900 convictions and guilty pleas including hundreds who were either charged with or convicted of violence against police officers. One wonders how proud those sheriffs who supported Trump are knowing 174 officers were injured that day, including 144 who required medical attention. Five officers died as the result of injuries or medical conditions that occurred that day.

Trump and his supporters can try, but they cannot erase the videos of what we all saw nor silence the hateful rhetoric spewed that day. Even scrubbing any mention of the riot from the Department of Justice website will not scrub it from our memories.

At least some of those given a second chance are already repeating the verbal ugliness of Jan. 6 claiming they are seeking “retribution.” Lovely.

Unfortunately, that clemency was neither Trump’s most inappropriate nor his most dangerous pardon. That honor would go to his full and unconditional pardon of one Ross Ulbricht.

You may have never heard of Ulbricht or the wildly illegal business he established, but we’ve all read about some of the consequences of his business acumen. Ulbricht created and ran a dark web site called Silk Road from 2011–2013. It was a kind of general store for all things illegal, especially drugs. And he made it difficult to identify buyers or sellers and the death and destruction they were selling. He was one of the first to engage in commerce using Bitcoins for transactions since they are notoriously difficult to trace.

Ulbricht’s Libertarian fans—he was and probably is a vocal Libertarian—thought it was just swell he’d found a way around government regulations and offered folks the chance to exercise personal responsibility on their own. Our government begged to differ.

According to testimony at his trial, the government said Ulbricht’s site was responsible for at least $200 million in the sale of illegal drugs, and Ulbricht pocketed $13.8 million in commissions. On 60 different occasions, undercover officers purchased heroin, cocaine, fentanyl, ecstasy, and LSD from sellers in 10 different countries on the Silk Road site.

The site also had sections specifically dedicated to forgery and hacking, and you could buy fully automatic weapons or engage in sex or slave trafficking. The government said at trial they could document at least six deaths tied directly to drugs people purchased on Silk Road.

Ulbricht was convicted of seven major felonies and sentenced to two life-without-parole terms plus 40 years.

Trump, who referred to those who prosecuted Ulbricht as “thugs”, said he pardoned him “... in honor of her (Ulbricht’s mother who met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago) and the Libertarian movement, which supported me so strongly...”

No mention of innocence or a miscarriage of justice or the death and destruction caused by Ulbricht and Silk Road. No, kissing the emperor’s backside was all that was required. Now Ulbricht can develop some other extra-legal destructive business though he claims he just wants to help humanity.

Joe Biden’s clemency included promises broken and inappropriate benefits for some, including his son. Trump’s clemency, on the other hand, could be downright dangerous.

The current president says his actions were justified. Pardon us if we disagree.