Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog Obam here. In late November, then President Donald J.
Speaker 1: Trump announced on Twitter quote, it is my great honor
Speaker 1: to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted
Speaker 1: a full pardon. Flynn, transformer National Security advisor, had been
Speaker 1: the only member of the Trump administration to be charged
Speaker 1: with a crime as part of the investigation by Special
Speaker 1: Counsel Robert Muller into Russian interference in the presidential campaign
Speaker 1: and the question of whether there had been links to
Speaker 1: or coordination with the Trump campaign. Flynn pled guilty to
Speaker 1: align to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian
Speaker 1: ambassador and cooperated with prosecutors, but then changed his mind
Speaker 1: and tried to withdraw his plea. Trump's pardon of Flynn
Speaker 1: drew fire from critics and Congress who saw it as
Speaker 1: an effort by Trump to erase the investigation into his
Speaker 1: campaign's connection with Russia, which Trump angrily had denounced as
Speaker 1: a hoax. The outcry increased after the White House released
Speaker 1: the specifics of the pardon, which absolved Flynn of not
Speaker 1: just the original charges, but also of any and all
Speaker 1: possible offenses within the investigatory authority or jurisdiction of the
Speaker 1: special counsel. One legal expert, Margaret Love, a former pardon
Speaker 1: attorney for presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton,
Speaker 1: told Politico that Trump's pardon of Flynn was the most
Speaker 1: sweeping in history, even more so than President Gerald ford
Speaker 1: pardon of his predecessor Richard Nixon for any crimes he
Speaker 1: might have committed during Watergate, But the critics concerns didn't
Speaker 1: make any difference. Trump, like every president before him, had
Speaker 1: the unique ability to override the federal justice system, release
Speaker 1: anyone he chose from paying a finer sentence, and return
Speaker 1: a person to the state of innocence they had before
Speaker 1: they ever committed a crime. The President isn't required to
Speaker 1: explain or justify this action to view me, Congress, or
Speaker 1: anyone else for that matter. The power to pardon is
Speaker 1: left solely to the discretion of the President and cannot
Speaker 1: be reviewed or overturned by any of the other branches
Speaker 1: of government. So where does this power come from, Why
Speaker 1: did it make it into the U s Constitution, What
Speaker 1: does it do, and how exactly does it work. The
Speaker 1: presidential pardon is based on the royal prerogative of English kings,
Speaker 1: which gave the king the ability to overturn any sentence. Originally,
Speaker 1: the king's prerogative existed without any limitations attached to it,
Speaker 1: but during the reign of King Charles the Second of
Speaker 1: sixteen sixty two sixty five, the English Parliament managed to
Speaker 1: institute the single rule that impeachment was excluded from the
Speaker 1: pardon power. This rule lives on today. When the Founding
Speaker 1: Fathers were developing the laws for the United States the
Speaker 1: late eighteenth century, the power to pardon almost didn't make
Speaker 1: it into the Constitution. In fact, it was barely considered.
Speaker 1: Two plans for framing the Constitution, the Virginia Plan and
Speaker 1: the New Jersey Plan, did not include the power to pardon.
Speaker 1: One of the Virginia Plans backers, George Mason, believed it
Speaker 1: was a mistake to grant such power to a single person,
Speaker 1: having just revolted against King George the Third, whom many
Speaker 1: Americans considered a tyrannical king. Many of Mason's fellow framers
Speaker 1: agreed with him, but Alexander Hamilton's, who believed in a large, powerful,
Speaker 1: centralized federal government made up of the elite thinkers of
Speaker 1: the Nation was able to bring the other framers of
Speaker 1: the U. S. Constitution around to his way of thinking.
Speaker 1: In number seventy four of his Federalist papers, Hamilton's extolled
Speaker 1: the value of a pardoning power. He wrote, in seasons
Speaker 1: of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments when
Speaker 1: a well timed offer of pardon to the insurgents or
Speaker 1: rebels may restore the tranquility of the commonwealth, and which,
Speaker 1: if suffered to pass an imp proved, it may never
Speaker 1: be possible afterwards to recall Hamilton's and eventually the other
Speaker 1: framers saw the value of investing in the president the
Speaker 1: ability to, at a moment's notice, and without the consent
Speaker 1: of any other branch of government, grant reprieves to groups
Speaker 1: during periods of national crisis. It was reasoned that some
Speaker 1: crises could be allayed or overcome if the belligerents could
Speaker 1: be given a deal for giving them for their trespasses,
Speaker 1: almost no sooner than the ink on the Constitution was dry.
Speaker 1: This ability was needed when farmers in Pennsylvania revolted in
Speaker 1: seventeen ninety four against federal taxes levied on their corn crops.
Speaker 1: The whiskey rebellion was born. President George Washington used the
Speaker 1: power to pardon for the first time in the United
Speaker 1: States history to forgive the revolting farmers for their insurrection
Speaker 1: against the young Nation. The action worked, and the rebellion
Speaker 1: was quieted. The pardon has since been used in this
Speaker 1: original intent several times. Andrew Johnson used the pardon to
Speaker 1: redeem Confederate soldiers after the Civil War and to help
Speaker 1: end the Vietnam era. President Jimmy Carter offered a blanket
Speaker 1: pardon to any American who had dodged the draft during
Speaker 1: the Vietnam War. There have been cases where Congress has
Speaker 1: considered introducing bills that limit the president's pardon power or
Speaker 1: allow oversight of pardons. Every last one of these bills
Speaker 1: has failed. Why Because the president's power to pardon is
Speaker 1: guaranteed by the Constitution. It's in the actual original document,
Speaker 1: not just the Bill of Rights, and as such, the
Speaker 1: judicial branch has viewed it as being protected. So what
Speaker 1: does this power involve? A person who is convicted of
Speaker 1: a federal felony may have to go to prison or
Speaker 1: pay a fine, but that's not all. They lose certain
Speaker 1: civil liberties, the right to vote, serve on a jury
Speaker 1: own a firearm. But Article to Section two of the U.
Speaker 1: S Constitution gives the president odd power to provide relief
Speaker 1: called clemency from all of those punishments. There are five
Speaker 1: types of clemency, from temporary postponement to full pardon. People
Speaker 1: convicted of federal crimes can request clemency through the Department
Speaker 1: of Justice, or the sitting president can go outside of
Speaker 1: that system. In the case Ship versus Read, the Supreme
Speaker 1: Court decreed that quote the pardoning power is an enumerated
Speaker 1: power of the Constitution and that it's limitations, if any,
Speaker 1: must be found in the Constitution itself. While a president's
Speaker 1: power to pardon is broad, it's not completely unlimited. For
Speaker 1: one thing, presidents can only pardon people for federal crimes,
Speaker 1: not state or local offenses. Additionally, a pardon can't be
Speaker 1: used to overturn a judgment in a civil lawsuit. Most importantly,
Speaker 1: the impeachment process, which can be used to remove presidents,
Speaker 1: members of Congress, and federal judges office, is excluded from
Speaker 1: the scope of the president's pardon power. And that's why
Speaker 1: even though former President Trump said that he had the
Speaker 1: absolute right to pardon himself legal scholars largely disagreed, though
Speaker 1: the question wound up being moot as he left office
Speaker 1: without attempting it. However, he did grant clemency to a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty three people on his last day in office,
Speaker 1: including his former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who had been
Speaker 1: charged with using hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations
Speaker 1: to Trump's We Build the Wall campaign for personal expenses.
Speaker 1: Bannon will now not face a trial. This brings the
Speaker 1: total number of times Trump used his power of executive
Speaker 1: pardon to over two hundred and thirty five, though that's
Speaker 1: actually on the relatively low end of the scale, and
Speaker 1: it's not uncommon to see a rash of clemency during
Speaker 1: a president's final days in office. Franklin D. Roosevelt granted
Speaker 1: the most pardons of any president three thousand, six hundred
Speaker 1: and eighty seven during his three and off terms in office,
Speaker 1: many of them for offenses occurred during World War One.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Patrick Jake Kaiger and produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler Clang. For more on listen lots of other topics,
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