Donald Trump has pardoned Michael Flynn. Will he be the last person pardoned before January?
US President Donald Trump has pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
Using executive powers still available until he leaves office in January, Trump announced the pardon on Twitter, wishing the former military general a "truly fantastic Thanksgiving".
Interestingly, Pew Research reports that Trump has used his clemency power less often than any other president in recent history.
But experts say that could change before Joe Biden enters the White House.
So what exactly did Michael Flynn do? And could Trump pardon himself before leaving office?
Remind me, what did Michael Flynn do?
Flynn served as Trump's first national security adviser but the President fired him in early 2017 after only 24 days as a controversy broke over his contact with then-Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak.
A retired US Army general, Flynn is the second Trump associate convicted in the Russia probe to be granted clemency.
Flynn was one of several former Trump aides to plead guilty or be convicted at trial in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Moscow's interference in the 2016 US election to boost Trump's candidacy.
Russia has denied meddling.
Trump in March said he was strongly considering a full pardon for Flynn.He said the FBI and Justice Department had "destroyed" Flynn's life and that of his family, and cited an unspecified, unsubstantiated report that they had lost records related to Flynn.
Flynn was supposed to cooperate with the Government as part of his plea deal, but he later switched lawyers and tactics, arguing that prosecutors in the case had tricked him into lying about his December 2016 conversations with ambassador Kislyak.
Flynn's sentencing has been deferred several times.
The Justice Department has repeatedly denied allegations of prosecutorial misconduct, and a US judge rejected all of Flynn's claims in December 2019.
US federal prosecutors had asked the judge in January to sentence Flynn to up to six months in prison, arguing in a court filing that "the defendant has not learned his lesson. He has behaved as though the law does not apply to him, and as if there are no consequences for his actions."
Flynn also served as head of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency but was forced out in 2014 in part due to his management style and opinions on how to fight Islamist militancy.
He joined the Trump 2016 election campaign and at the Republican National Convention that year he led supporters in chants of "Lock her up," in reference to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.
How are people responding to Flynn's pardon?
US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler said Flynn's pardon was undeserved and unprincipled.
"The President's enablers have constructed an elaborate narrative in which Trump and Flynn are victims and the Constitution is subject to the whims of the President," the Congressman, a Democrat, said in a statement.
House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff said the pardon wasn't a surprise but was nonetheless crooked.
"Flynn pled guilty to those lies, twice. A pardon by Trump does not erase that truth, no matter how Trump and his allies try to suggest otherwise," he said.
Trump previously commuted the sentence of longtime confidant Roger Stone just days before he was to report to prison in relation to the Russia investigation.
Among others, Trump has pardoned Army personnel accused of war crimes in Afghanistan and Joe Arpaio, a former Arizona sheriff and hardliner against illegal immigration.
What else might Trump do before leaving office?
US presidents are often known as "lame ducks" during their final months in office, counting down to the inauguration of their successor.
Presidents can use this period to make all kinds of appointments, pass laws and make executive orders.
George HW Bush, for example, deployed US troops to aid in famine relief and political stabilisation efforts in Somalia, and launched air strikes in Iraq after it violated no-fly-zone provisions in a 1991 ceasefire agreement.
Barack Obama signed a $500 million grant for the UN Green Climate Fund.
Most commonly, however, presidents use it to offer pardons.
Offering pardons is one of the few powers over which US presidents have complete discretion.
In his final days in office, Obama commuted the sentences of Chelsea Manning and more than 200 others.
According to Pew, Obama granted clemency 1,927 times during his eight years in office.
As of November 23, Trump had granted clemency just 44 times.
So, look out for more presidential pardons before January.
In February, he commuted the prison sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and pardoned former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik.
Among the others getting a break from the President were financier Michael Milken and Edward DeBartolo Jr, the former San Francisco 49ers owner.
Trump is likely to make liberal use of his ability to offer pardons, says Curtin University professor and presidential historian Joe Siracusa.
And because pardons can apply even when the person had not yet been indicted or charged with a crime, Professor Siracusa says Ivanka, Eric and Donald Jr could be given clemency.
Could Trump pardon himself?
No president has ever pardoned themself, so there is not a definitive answer to this question.
"When people ask me if a president can pardon himself, my answer is always, 'well, he can try,'" said Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University.
Many legal experts have said that a self-pardon would be unconstitutional because it violates the basic principle that nobody should be the judge in his or her own case.
Mr Trump could try to pardon himself pre-emptively to cover the possibility of prosecution after he leaves office.
In that case, the pardon's legitimacy might never be tested in court, Mr Kalt said.
For a court to rule on the pardon's validity, a federal prosecutor would have to charge Mr Trump with a crime and then Mr Trump would have to raise the pardon as a defence, he said.
However, a successor can choose to pardon the former president if he wishes.
"This is what Gerald Ford and Richard Nixon did," Professor Siracusa said.
Vice-president Gerald Ford became president after Richard Nixon resigned the position, and he then pardoned Nixon.
Professor Siracusa said pardons could apply even when the person had not yet been indicted or charged with a crime.
"They can pardon the president — or anybody else you want to pardon [depending] on the wording — for any crimes they have committed or may have committed," he said.
ABC/wires
Related Stories
Top Stories
Popular Now
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
