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Should we wake the President?
Charlie Cooke at NRO has a Corner post detailing discussions within the White House advocating preemptive pardons for Biden allies. Perhaps most curious, however, is that Mr. Biden is not involved in those discussions at this point. This got me thinking…
Obviously, the constitutional pardon power is exclusive to the President and is generally unreviewable. But what happens to a pardon if it can be argued that the president didn’t understand what he was doing or was incapable of making the decision? Do we even know whether Mr. Biden knows he pardoned Hunter? Should the judges in Hunter’s matters ask for a sworn statement from Mr. Biden?
In most areas of the law, incapacity is grounds for voiding contracts, wills, etc. I can’t imagine that pardons should be any different just because someone had access to the seal and auto-pen. It’s not hard to imagine staffers shoving papers in front of Biden for him to sign on January 19. Is it too much to imagine him having little or no idea what he’s signing?
Seems possible to me. What do you all think?
Published in Politics
I like it.
“Here’s your menu for next week with extra ice cream, Mr. President. Just sign right here.”
Except on January 19, the menu would just be for the next DAY.
But will Joe know that?
Probably not. They could have told him some time ago that he’d already served two terms. Although then it might have been more difficult to get him to sign things.
The 25th is available, and I think a quick impeachment would be delightful. Otherwise, his handlers have the full power of the presidency.
There is an office in the DOJ dedicated to reviewing clemency cases. The Office of the Pardon Attorney reviews and prepares all the paperwork the president eventually signs. The current Pardon Attorney is Elizabeth Oyer.
Thanks—this is good to know. Do we know the dynamics of the office? Does she have direct access to the president? I would assume the White House Counsel’s office drafts the things for Oyer to review. Would she know whether Biden is actually on board?
From their website:
Is there anything that says the president MUST USE the Pardon Attorney etc?
And did he do so for Hunter’s pardon?
Lol, it is cute that you asked that question.
I doubt the pardon attorney’s office was even informed that Biden was going to issue an11 year preemptive pardon for his bag man.
Like he’d notice the issue.
As far as I can tell from a very casual look at its website, the Office of the Pardon Attorney receives, filters, and perfects petitions from below, not above. That is, if poor ol’ you have been convicted or accused of something, or think you are about to be, you make your “case” to this office, which may then forward it to the President.
It could work in the other direction, I suppose. The President may ask the office for an opinion.
Or to provide appropriate language. It can’t be easy to phrase the pardon for a blanket, after all.
And how would Ms. Oyer know if the papers that come to her for review were drafted by someone who told the President he was signing a letter to Santa?
What if they try to draft a pardon for every violation of immigration law? Another for every corrupt politician in Milwaukee and Philadelphia for vote rigging? And here is a tough legal issue: could they draft a pardon for every outstanding traffic or parking violation in DC by WH staff or does DC’s home rule charter bar that? What about those on the Epstein Island visitor list?
This could be a great movie comedy storyline–hijinx by cynical corrupt staff selling pardons from a cognitively impaired president in his last days in office trying to slip the docs past the last honest staffer…
Too soon.
This is something I think Oyer should testify to Congress about.
Isn’t something like that how the reformation got started?
The power is what it is…as it should be (unless changed by proper Constitutional processes. Good luck with that.)
Irrelevant. This is what “you” get for pretending for four years that he was really fulfilling the duties of the office. Who knows how many nameless factions around him have access to the “seal and auto-pen”? Any of them can use powers in his name at will…and can/will do so until the end of the term.
There was a docu-drama made about this years ago. The part of the staffers was combined into a single character named Radar O’Reilly:
I’ve said for years, even before Biden got to VP, that he only ever wanted the title(s), not the job(s).
Me, too, man. Me, too. No, not saying that. I mean, I want the title without the work. I definitely want a campaign without having to shake hands, for instance. Those people might have germs.
You’ve been saying that for years, and you’ve been wrong about it for years. Not 100 percent wrong; maybe more like 85 percent wrong. Biden has always wanted power. He wouldn’t be human if he didn’t. He may never have learned the nuts and bolts of exercising power to the degree that Stalin did, and he certainly didn’t have the work ethic without which Stalin couldn’t have killed his millions, but he worked hard enough and got enough experience at lying and double dealing that you can’t say he only wanted the title.
Voter cooties!
To the extent that power comes just from the title, then it’s still the same thing. He didn’t want to do the actual work of the job, such as putting together legislation and getting it passed. Staff does most of that anyway.
Power never comes just from the title, though sometimes titles can be put to use in exercising power. But the title alone is not enough.
I’m pretty sure that nobody but the person with the title of President can issue pardons.
Governors can issue pardons for offenses under their state’s jurisdiction. I suspect this might not be uniform to all 50 states. We are like that.
Same thing, though. Whoever has the title Governor can do that, whether or not they are doing “the rest of the job,” whatever that is.
Whoever holds the office.
Right. And whoever holds the office, has the title. And vice reversa.