President Donald Trump has shown little restraint using his pardon power. In his second term, he has issued over 1,500 pardons, many of them controversial. The most shocking have been his pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters, which included individuals convicted of violent attacks on law enforcement officers. He has also pardoned a large number of people involved in major white collar crimes. Some billionaires, including Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, have had their record wiped clean.

Not only has the president issued an extraordinary number of pardons, but he has also frequently bypassed the normal procedures that previous presidents used to vet such decisions. Viewing himself as a victim of persecution of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, he has abandoned longstanding guardrails. In Trump’s hands, the constitutional power of pardon has become another tool to reward loyal supporters, leading some to argue that he has reinforced expectations of immunity among those willing to do anything for the president.

President Donald Trump has shown little restraint using his pardon power. In his second term, he has issued over 1,500 pardons, many of them controversial. The most shocking have been his pardons of the Jan. 6 rioters, which included individuals convicted of violent attacks on law enforcement officers. He has also pardoned a large number of people involved in major white collar crimes. Some billionaires, including Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao, have had their record wiped clean.

Not only has the president issued an extraordinary number of pardons, but he has also frequently bypassed the normal procedures that previous presidents used to vet such decisions. Viewing himself as a victim of persecution of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, he has abandoned longstanding guardrails. In Trump’s hands, the constitutional power of pardon has become another tool to reward loyal supporters, leading some to argue that he has reinforced expectations of immunity among those willing to do anything for the president.

The pardon power has long been one of the most dubious constitutional tools at the disposal of the White House. But if there was a single crucial turning point in its history, it came in September 1974, when President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for any crimes that Nixon might have committed. From that moment on, many Americans have viewed presidents announcing a new pardon with suspicion, fearing that a loyalist is being protected or rewarded.

The president’s pardon power is rooted in the Constitution. Under Article II, Section 2, the president is given the power to “grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of........

© Foreign Policy