House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there should be a law to curb President Trump's pardon power.
During an interview with CNN host Anderson Cooper, Pelosi called Trump's commutation of former aide Roger Stone "appalling." The California Democrat also said she
recommends passing a law that would prevent the president from exercising his constitutional power if the person being pardoned is politically connected to him.
"For the president to be able to issue a pardon on the basis of a crime that the person committed assisting the president is ridiculous, and there ought to be a law," Pelosi began. "And I'm recommending that we pass a law that presidents cannot issue a pardon if the crime that the person is in jail for is one that is caused by protecting the president, which this was. It's appalling."
The power to pardon is an explicitly noted presidential power in Article II of the Constitution. "He shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment,"
the Constitution reads.
To alter presidential pardon power would likely require an amendment to the Constitution itself.
Trump did not pardon Stone and thus did not erase his criminal record but rather fully commuted his three-year sentence on Friday evening. Stone, 67, had been ordered to surrender to prison on Tuesday. His emergency appeal to extend his July 14 surrender date because of the coronavirus was rejected by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit earlier in the evening Friday.
The White House statement said Stone "would be put at serious medical risk" if sent to prison.
Comment: Pelosi only intends to limit Trump's powers - any law would be quickly rescinded if a Democrat was in power:
Democrats attack Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio but forget their pardons of terrorists and traitors
Let's take a walk down memory lane, shall we?
President Bill Clinton pardoned not one, but 16 members of the dangerous terrorist organization Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (spanish for "Armed Forces of National Liberation"). Among the FBI's most wanted, the group was responsible for the 1975 bombing of a New York City restaurant where prominent businessmen dined, as well as NYPD police headquarters on New Year's Eve in 1982, and other incidents that terrorized the nation.
Always up to the task of shameless political posturing, Clinton pardoned some of his political donors. Marc Rich was wanted for $47 million in back taxes and 51 counts of tax fraud, in addition to his suspected activity in an Iraqi "oil for food" kickback scheme where the U.S. government suspected he served as the middle man for the illicit sale of 4 million barrels of oil.[..]
Long before Clinton, President Jimmy Carter pardoned three members of a terrorist gang who shot 30 rounds from the visitor's balcony into the chamber of the House of Representatives in a suspected attempt to mass-murder members of Congress.[..]
During his final week in office, Obama also commuted the sentences of more than 1,700 prisoners in two batches of clemency grants; 504 of his pardons were for inmates serving life sentences including armed robbers and drug dealers who had convictions for the distribution of cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin.
Comment: Pelosi only intends to limit Trump's powers - any law would be quickly rescinded if a Democrat was in power: Democrats attack Trump's pardon of Joe Arpaio but forget their pardons of terrorists and traitors