Pardons and Power
Jared Golden Takes a Stand Against Presidential Overreach
Congressman
of Maine just did something you don’t see much in Washington these days: he criticized leaders of both parties.Writing in the Bangor Daily News, Congressman Golden called out Presidents Biden and Trump for abusing executive authority. Both men, he argued, used the pardon power unfairly – President Trump for forgiving the January 6th rioters, and President Biden for preemptively pardoning his friends, family, and associates.
While pardons are not a new phenomenon – George Washington pardoned 16 people, and every president since has pardoned at least one – they have become much more common in recent years.
This chart shows the number of pardons and commutations1 granted by each president since 1900. After a lull in the post-war period, you can see a resurgence of pardons among the last three presidents:
Pardons reflect a broader trend of the executive branch accumulating more power while legislators stand idly by. Presidents have relied on executive orders to enact policy while Congress has passed fewer laws. Interestingly, while presidents tend to sign a flurry of executive orders as soon as they get in office, they increasingly tend to save their pardons for the end of the term.
This chart shows what percentage of each president’s pardons were issued during their last year in office:
Presumably, this means presidents know that the American public doesn’t appreciate self-serving pardons. By waiting as long as possible, they can ensure the fallout has less of an effect on their ability to govern. President Biden’s preemptive pardons for his family, for example, came merely hours before President Trump was sworn in.
President Trump’s pardons for the January 6th rioters buck this trend. They were quite unpopular (just 33% of people supported the pardons, per Quinnipiac), so it’s not like he was trying to boost his approval ratings. Perhaps President Trump sincerely saw the rioters as political prisoners who needed to be released as soon as possible; or perhaps, as Congressman Golden puts it, it was “a not-so-subtle wink to others who might break the law or commit violence in his name in the future.”
Regardless of the justifications, the recent surge in pardons is a warning sign for American democracy.
It’s up to principled leaders like Congressman Golden to step up and push back on executive overreach, no matter which “side” it comes from. And it’s up to citizens like us to support those who step up.
Pardons and commutations are very similar. Both are forms of "clemency." Pardons are full forgiveness: they forgo any criminal punishments and restore full rights of citizenship. Commutations reduce or end the punishment, but does not erase the conviction.