Trump's super-charged pardon push raises eyebrows and concerns

During his first term, President Donald Trump peppered his tenure with controversial pardons for friends and notables whose freedom was as much a byproduct of their personal proximity to the Oval Office as anything else. Now, Trump's penchant for politically motivated pardons has pushed well beyond the expansive precedent he set for himself. His latest tranche of pardons and commutations reflects both a personal antipathy toward the Justice Department and a wider effort to reframe the nation's sense of criminality.

A 'new pipeline' for Trump's political allies

Trump's decision this week to pardon Scott Jenkins, a former Virginia sheriff sentenced to 10 years in prison for what the acting U.S. attorney at the time called a "cash-for-badges scheme," is part of a "broader pattern" for the White House, said NBC News. By focusing his pardons on "former public officials who were convicted of financial improprieties," Trump's Justice Department is "de-emphasizing public corruption cases," especially those connected to the DOJ's Public Integrity Section.

Under the leadership of newly installed DOJ Pardon Attorney Ed Martin, formerly Trump's interim U.S. attorney for Washington D.C., the pardon office has been turned into a "new pipeline for political allies to get their cases in front of Trump," said The Wall Street Journal. Martin is also using the role to "target Biden-era prosecutions that rankled conservatives," and "correct" the alleged "weaponization of the Justice Department against conservatives" often touted by the president.

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While this pattern "began in the first Trump administration," said former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer to PBS "Newshour," it has "gotten worse under the new administration for two reasons." First, many of the pardons are "happening in secret." Second, these pardons are "really different" from those in Trump's first term, which included several "truly deserving individuals who were more along the lines of ordinary Americans who did benefit from pardons." This time, Oyer said, Trump seems to be extending them "just for wealthy, well-connected people."

'No MAGA left behind'

Explaining his decision to pardon reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, convicted in 2022 for their role in a multimillion-dollar fraud and tax evasion scheme, Trump stressed that the pair "don't look like terrorists," said Savannah Chrisley, the couple's daughter and speaker at the 2024 Republican National Convention, to NewsNation on Tuesday. The overall pattern of Trump's latest clemency spree is "pretty clear," CNN said: It focuses on people who "support Trump or have ties to him," those who have attacked people who Trump considers enemies, and those for whom the pardons "send messages to key constituencies." Or, as Martin himself put it in a post on X after arranging Jenkins' pardon: "No MAGA left behind."

The latest crop of pardon recipients shows that Trump is attempting to "redefine" presidential amnesty powers, said The New York Times. Eschewing the "normal and often lengthy" vetting process typically associated with pardons, Trump is instead handing them out to "reward his supporters, incentivize loyalty to his administration or bolster supporters."

While presidents enjoy largely unfettered clemency powers, they typically rely on non-political counsel to determine eligibility so that "individuals who do not have political connections can still have their applications considered," said Oyer to PBS. Trump's rejection of that traditional process means there is "no path forward that we know of right now for ordinary people to be considered for clemency."