https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/us/politics/trump-fraudst...

This is a race to the bottom. Criminals confer political advantage by operating outside the law. If we tolerate this from one side we implicitly require it from all.

We need to strike the pardon power. Hamilton thought “the dread of being accused of weakness or connivance, would beget…circumspection” when it came to corrupt pardons [1]. That has not occurred.

Meanwhile, his argument against the Congress granting pardons through law was that “in seasons of insurrection or rebellion, there are often critical moments, when a welltimed offer of pardon to the insurgents or rebels may restore the tranquillity of the commonwealth,” and that such a deliberative process “would have a tendency to embolden guilt.”

We’ve had a civil war. It was not prevented by pardons. At its conclusion, various groups in the executive and the Congress deliberated and passed measures of amnesty [2]. Our modern pardon process, moreover, has evolved into—more often than not— an entire office. And under Trump, its concentrated and corrupt application has directly emboldened those who seek to overthrow our Constitution by violent means.

[1] https://avalon.law.yale.edu/18th_century/fed74.asp

[2] https://www.archives.gov/files/research/naturalization/411-c...