Can Trump sell “El Chapo” Mexican drug lord and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel a pardon for a $billion? The whole country, media, government, law enforcement, Congress, everybody is in a helpless tizzy about these completely illegitimate, corrupt pardons by Trump. Everybody seems gutless and most commonly I see “pardon power is unconditional”. Well no, its not.
No right is unconditional. For example, the right to bear arms is as unconditional as any, specified right in the 2nd Amendment. But that unconditional right does not evidently include the right to have battle tanks and surface-to-air missiles. Nobody’s allowed to bear such arms. Get it? Its a right conditional upon realistic, sensible and ethical grounds.
Back to unconditional pardon power. Could the president pardon every federal prisoner in America? Could Roger Stone and the Blackwater murderers be the bombers in Nashville and Trump can pardon them? How stupid does it have to get?
Lets suppose that the president, not necessarily Trump, any president, sits down with his “friends” the day he takes office and says “Go out commit all the crimes you want. Steal all the money you can. Rob Fort Knox. And assassinate anybody I ask you to…. Don’t worry at the end I’ll pardon you. Couldn’t he do that if pardon power is unconditional? Why not? Could that be exactly what Trump did in this case. Did all these guys know that in the end Trump would pardon them no matter if they massacred people or threatened to kill judges? Couldn’t Stone murder that judge he threatened tomorrow and be pardoned? Why not?
I don’t know how anybody with half a brain can argue or worse accept that these pardons are legal or right in any way.Trump’s pardons should be challenged in the Supreme Court so we can clarify whether he can pardon everybody and we can privately own nuclear weapons
