Biden pardons Trump.
Outrage mitigated. Base can’t rage.
Biden easily wins re-election.
Outrage mitigated. Base can’t rage.
Biden easily wins re-election.
Unlike some other countries-here in Australia, state prosecutors can charge federal crimes and federal prosecutors can charge state ones. Australia doesn’t have the hard separation between state and federal legal systems that the US has
The question asked is: can the President pardon Trump for the federal part of the crime, thus reducing the charge to a misdemeanor. The answer is “No”, because he has not been convicted in federal court, there is nothing to pardon him of.
However it does raise the question: Is it proper to convict someone of a state crime based on “criminality” where the criminality is a federal crime that they have not been convicted of in federal court? It seems unlikely.
In any case, I believe all of this is just media speculation and presumably there will be more clear-cut charges in the real indictment.
I don't think that's right – the US President can pardon someone for a federal crime which they haven't even been charged with yet. Ford pardoned Nixon even though he hadn't been charged with any federal crime, and that was sufficient to bar any future federal prosecution of Nixon for the crimes to which the pardon applied.
However, from what I understand, the state charge is not that he violated federal election laws, but rather he committed the state crime with the intention of violating federal election laws. So, they don't need to prove he actually committed a federal crime, only that he committed a state crime with the intention of committing a federal crime, even if he never actually committed the federal crime which (they allege) he was intending to commit. Which is probably why any federal pardon would be legally irrelevant. However, it likely does give the federal courts greater grounds on which to hear an appeal than they normally would in a state criminal case – if a state court concludes that Trump intended to do X, and that X is a federal crime, federal appellate courts could always rule that X is not a federal crime (whether or not Trump did it), thereby destroying the legal theory behind the state conviction.
> However it does raise the question: Is it proper to convict someone of a state crime based on “criminality” where the criminality is a federal crime that they have not been convicted of in federal court? It seems unlikely.
Personally, I think people are going to look back on this as a big mistake on Alvin Bragg's part – charging Trump on what appears to be a highly technical and complex legal theory, for acts which in themselves were on the low end of criminal severity. Trump is likely to beat this one way or another, which will help his narrative of "I'm being persecuted by left-wing prosecutors".
If you believe Trump is guilty of far worse offences (such as trying to overturn the result of a democratic election), you don't want to see that narrative being given legs, since it may make it harder for prosecutors to win if they bring those more serious charges. It is even possible that this might lead to the Republican party uniting behind Trump and guaranteeing him the nomination–what happens if Trump wins in 2024 (whether fairly or unfairly)? Future historians may come to see this as a key event in helping make that happen. In hindsight, people might come to see Alvin Bragg as having unintentionally done Trump a big favour.
> In any case, I believe all of this is just media speculation and presumably there will be more clear-cut charges in the real indictment.
My impression this is not mere "speculation", rather leaks coming from insiders who know what is in the sealed indictment, making it more likely to be true – but of course, with any leaks, there is always the chance they are inaccurate in some way. We'll see.
Pardoning Trump would continue the example set by Gerald Ford in pardoning Nixon.
"Helping the country heal" seems hollow to me. To use a few metaphors:
1. Physical healing can't properly happen until the foreign object is cleared and infection removed from the body.
2. Mental healing doesn't fully happen until person comes to terms with what's happened. Burying the trauma is a risky time-bomb of a "solution".
If injustice goes unpunished or unaddressed, victims typically don't have closure. They lose confidence in the rule of law. Some take it into their own hands.
Large portions of the American public have been traumatized by Trump's behavior. We are seeking justice.
And any temporary comfort from pardoning Trump would be undermined by the uneven application of justice.
The same is not true for Trump today. Even if Biden pardoned Trump, establishment politics would continue to have to deal with him moving forward. He has shown no indication that he would stop attacking everything around him.
But if one of the insurrection prosecutions makes it up - then it's hard to see it being pardoned. "Petty" is not a word that springs to mind when describing the events of Jan 6th.
Braggs ignored many democrats advice on this and went rogue.