Is Trump goading Biden into blanket pardons?

Offering blanket pardons is a very bad precedent.  The pardon of President Biden’s son, Hunter, was bad enough.  It covered 11 years, starting before President Trump was even elected in 2016.  It was for ANY federal crime Hunter may have committed during those years.

While some praised the pardon as an understandable action by a father – and others out of a belief that Hunter was unjustly indicted and convicted by Papa Joe’s own Department of  Justice – the general consensus is that it was a bad idea.  Many see it as damaging President Biden’s already thin legacy — and politically harmful to the Democratic Party.   Many of them believe that it also takes the pressure off of Trump’s anticipated pardons for some or all of the January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill rioters.

Judging from the media opinions – especially on left-leaning news platforms – an unprecedented broad pardon would be even worse – even more damaging.  Based on speculation, Biden would be pardoning potentially scores of people who have not been indicted or convicted of federal crimes and are not even under investigation or suspicion of committing federal crimes.

Many would not want — and would not accept — such a pardon because it would cast an aura of suspicion over them.  Why would anyone want a pardon if they did not think they had committed crimes?  California Senator-elect Adam Schiff has already said he did not want a pardon. (If that sounds cavalier, you need to know that members of Congress already have an immunity from prosecution.  That’s right, all those hypocrites who whine about presidential immunity have their own version.  But I digress.  Or did I weave?)

The rationale for the blanket pardons is the belief that once Trump is in office, he will order the Justice Department to file charges against everyone who ever said a bad word about the former now President-elect.

If Trump were serious about trying to jail members of the January 6^th Committee, new media personalities and a range of top bureaucrats, he would be best served by remaining quiet about his intentions to avoid provoking Biden into issuing a massive number of baseless pardons.  And that raises an interesting question.

Trump is not keeping his own counsel in the matter. Quite the opposite.  He has doubled down on rhetoric.  He recently went on television and said that the members of the January 6^th Committee should be jailed.

Is Trump purposely goading Biden into issuing very unpopular pardons?  Trump likely believes (as do I) that Biden will inevitably have to pardon members of the Biden family – and possibly himself – to end all the investigations against the family that are currently in process.  And now that Hunter can be compelled to testify – having lost his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination – pardons for specific Biden friends and family members become more likely — virtually inevitable.

The Biden family’s potential legal peril may also be a reason for the broader pardons – to make them less notable.  If he only pardons family and friends, the unresolved questions associated with all that Ukrainian, Chinese and Russian money stick out like a transgender athlete in the ladies locker room (no pun intended).

It is questionable as to how far Trump would go – or would want to go – in seeking to jail his political enemies.   We can recall the “Lock her up” rhetoric in 2016, which was never pursued after Trump took office.    Also, even if he were inclined to seek retribution, he knows that the American justice system only bends so far to political pressure.  There is still the law, prosecutors, judges and juries to be considered.

Perhaps the best situation for Trump is to have Biden go for blanket pardons … damage his own credibility …  give seeming credibility to Trump’s claims of lawfare … make the action look like a crime family cover up … inflict another wound on the Democratic Party … cast suspicion on a bunch of people who are probably unindictable … and reduce criticism of any future Trump pardons.  That looks a lot like a win for the incoming President.

While it is impossible to know what Trump has in mind, there is a reasonable argument that his latest threats of retribution on his political enemies are merely a ruse to goad Biden into taking that final step off the political pardon plank.

So, there ‘tis.