The Week With Monique | Step Right Up, Pardons For Sale!
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What does Monique mean by 'Pardons for sale' and how does she introduce the issue?
Greetings, Lumination. My name is Monique Presley, and I am back with you for another edition of The Week with Monique. If I had to describe for you the issue of the week this week, I would have to take it back to our days as kids, where maybe we had gone to a circus or a carnival or two, and when we walk in, there's a man with a big hat, some funny outfit, saying, step right up, step right up. Except for this week, he'd be saying, come get your pardon. Pardon's for sale. You can have a pardon for the low price of $1 million. Cut your check and get your friend or your loved one out of jail free. That's exactly what's been happening this week as we start rattling off the names of people that the current occupant of the White House has decided to pardon.
And with a huge departure, from prior years, even from his own prior administration. None of the rules that used to apply, none of the guidelines, none of the guardrails for how we determined pardons are applicable anymore. It seems that they are quite literally available to the highest bidder. Of course, you've got to be all MAGA all the time and you got to put your money where your mouth is. So this week, We saw people who were fraudsters. We saw people who were tax evaders. We saw people with serious offenses. And they all really only had a couple of things in common. They had pledged fealty and loyalty to Trump and the MAGA brand, and they were willing to pay the price. Now, gone are the days when people like the pardon attorney under President Biden actually had standards and people submitted their applications for pardons and frankly, many people
who we would argue deserved pardons didn't get them. Elizabeth Oyer this past week explained what the pardon process is supposed to be like and why it matters.
There is a process that is in place and has been in place for a very long time for applying for a presidential pardon. And the reason this process exists is to ensure that the pardon power is not totally politicized and corrupted in the manner that is happening now. There is an office, the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which is dedicated to reviewing and vetting applicants for pardons. Individuals from around the country who are seeking presidential pardons apply through the office, wait their turn for their application to be vetted, and the office makes a very thorough and comprehensive recommendation in every single case to the president. Those are ordinary Americans who are going through that process, and many of them are actually very deserving of the relief that's provided by pardons.
They include individuals who are sentenced under mandatory minimum laws that are now defunct, that no longer exist. Many of them are serving life sentences in prison, and many of them have demonstrated that they have earned a presidential pardon through exemplary conduct and character in years and years that have passed since their convictions. All of that has fallen by the wayside under the current administration. There is no process that's being followed, and it appears to require some sort of inside connection or access or willingness to pay to be able to obtain the benefit of a presidential pardon. What, if anything, is illegal even for a president? Well, unfortunately, the pardon power is very unconstrained.
The president does have the constitutional power to pardon anyone that he chooses. And for that reason, it's very important that this process is followed so that it's not totally corrupted in the way that it is now.
Which examples of recent Trump pardons illustrate a departure from historical norms?
The Department of Justice has a comprehensive, detailed set of guidelines in place that it follows or is supposed to follow in recommending pardons to the president. And I can tell you that there is not a single person who has received a pardon from President Trump who meets those criteria that apply in ordinary times. And President Trump has appointed a pardon attorney who has demonstrated that he does not feel bound by those decades and decades of guidance that have always applied. Ed Martin is the first political appointee ever to occupy the position of pardon attorney, which has historically always been occupied by a career employee of the Department of Justice.
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