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Comment by croes | Hacker News Reader

That protects Trump, not his henchmen.

And soldiers are expected to refuse orders that are manifestly illegal

True. Has an American soldier ever been prosecuted for obeying an illegal order?

I'm not sure what exactly the orders were, but Calley, one of the My Lai massacre war criminals was in fact convicted. But many others who should have been convicted were not.

Calley claimed he was following orders from Medina (his SO) but Medina denied giving them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Calley only served 5 months behind bars, the other 35 were under house arrest.

https://time.com/archive/6878225/the-military-galley-paroled...

For the cold blooded murder of many civilians. Insanity, and one of those moments that humanity will judge its past by.

Trump has pardoned several people who attempted to breach the capital and murder elected representatives to stop the ratification of a democratic presidential election.

All he needs is a single paper that says "All members of the military following the orders of President Trump are pardoned for all crimes past and future related to said orders" and - boom - accountability gone!

For now. But there is no reason why a future government of the USA would not see that in an entirely different light. After all, those that went to trial after WWII also argued that their actions were legal and it turned out not to be the case.

There is no legal mechanism for unpardoning someone, the constitution only allows it to go one way. It would require an amendment, and we can't even pass laws with this legislature.

And for good reason, mind you. Same reason as dismissal without prejudice gets some flak as easily abused for corrupt leverage.

A future government is not necessarily bound to the one the preceded it depending on the way the one government changed into the other. And the way things are going right now there is a non-zero chance that the USA will see a reboot of its system of government, if it doesn't actually fall apart into multiple different countries.

His henchmen are implicitly protected because he'll pardon them.

This protects Trump, and Trump protects his henchmen. Look at the J6 pardons.

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