House Democrat suggests making it illegal for presidents to pardon family members
Connolly, who currently sits on the House Oversight committee, said he understood the president's decision as a parent, but that presidents should not be allowed to pardon their own family members.
Biden claimed that his son was unfairly targeted and prosecuted, and granted a full pardon for Hunter Biden for all crimes committed between 2014 and 2024. The blanket pardon means the first son cannot be prosecuted or sentenced for his tax charges, his federal gun charge, or any possible crime he committed while on the board of Burisma.
It certainly doesn't look good, but maybe old Joe wishes to go down in history by attaching some kind of notable achievement to the Biden name. He's done that.
Apparently the Democrats aren't so keen on his bid to be even more memorable than he is already. It's not difficult to see why that might be.
8 comments:
I'm amazed that the US allows The President to grant a person a blanket indemnity for any possible crime committed pretty much at any time in their life prior to the date of the pardon. I can kind of get the pardon for actual convictions. Politics is murky, people may get caught up in things on behalf of the politician, and I can see how they might want to be able 'right the wrongs', as they see it. But a blanket indemnity for anything and everything they might have done and could possibly get prosecuted for? I mean if it came out that Hunter Biden had murdered someone between 2014 and 2024, does that mean he could just wave his Presidential Pardon and nothing could be done?
I predict he'll issue a pardon for his other partner in crime, his brother, on an occasion when it won't really be noticed - December 25th, perhaps, or January 20th. Or maybe not; if he pardoned his brother then said brother wouldn't be able to "take the fifth" as a witness in any corruption trial against Joe. Tricky business, running a political crime family. Can't he seek advice from the Clintons or Kennedys?
And if President trump pardons all the January 6 'insurrectionists' (who have a much stronger case of political persecution) will the main stream media merely mention the item as newsworthy - or will they froth at the mouth for weeks?
No; murder is a crime under State law (Or so I am told); it's only Federal crimes he has been pardoned for. I have seen suggestions that the blanket pardon is, or should be, legally ineffective anyway i.e. it's only for crimes with which he has been charged that he can be pardoned. Whether SCOTUS would ever produce such a ruling God knows.
Sobers - yes it's weird. As far as I know, it does mean Hunter Biden could have done anything criminal between 2014 and 2024 and just wave his Presidential Pardon. If so, then Biden has opened a very dodgy can of worms.
dearieme - I don't know if it is the case, but his brother is allegedly the bagman, so yes it is a tricky business. No doubt he'll be guided towards a safe mansion somewhere.
DJ - they will froth at the mouth until the next election, and if they lose that they will just carry on frothing.
dearieme - sounds complicated, maybe he'll just drop out of sight and carry on with the art.
"murder is a crime under State law (Or so I am told); it's only Federal crimes he has been pardoned for."
According to this, murder can (in certain circumstances) be a Federal crime:
https://www.shouselaw.com/ca/blog/examples-of-federal-crimes/
Sobers - interesting, I wondered if there are scenarios.
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