To date, Trump has issued just 29 total pardons,
fewer than any other presidential term in modern history. George H.W. Bush, the previous one-term record holder for fewest pardons, granted 74.
That pattern may change soon. As the end of his presidency approaches,
pardon season is officially upon us. Perhaps most worrisome, speculation has run rampant that Trump may even try to pardon himself (something he
likely can't do.)
Since the turn of the 20th century, presidents
have granted more than 21,000 pardons and commutations of sentences. More good than bad, presidential pardons have the
power to undo past injustice and clear the name of those who were unfairly prosecuted for federal crimes (state-level offenses are tried separately). Overall, good pardons quell rough political waters and correct previous wrongdoings, while bad pardons diminish the prestige of the presidency and undermine the strength of American democracy.
As Trump prepares to leave office, his pardon power may well be a defining part of his legacy. Rather than merely serving partisan ends, he can and should use the pardon power for good. By doing so, he can help to unify the country after this year's contentious presidential election.
Let's start with the positive examples of pardons and commutations.
President Warren Harding
In 1921, President Warren Harding
commuted the prison sentence of Eugene V. Debs, a perennial presidential candidate for the Socialist Party. He had been
arrested in 1918 after delivering a speech in Canton, Ohio, that encouraged resistance to American involvement in World War I. He
was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violating the Espionage and Sedition Acts of 1917 and deprived of his citizenship rights, including the ability to vote. Incredibly, Debs received nearly 1 million votes for president in 1920, even though he was still imprisoned.
Although Harding
did not give a full pardon to Debs, the decision to commute the sentence helped the country to move beyond politically divisive rhetoric. Harding
ably justified his decision in a letter to his close friend Malcolm Jennings: "I thought the spirit of clemency was quite in harmony with the things we were trying to do in Washington; that Debs had never been guilty of any overt act; that he never countenanced destruction of government by force, and probably I could persuade him to become a factor in contributing to tranquility throughout the land."
Even as criticism surfaced from both the right and the left, the move safeguarded freedom of speech across the political spectrum. "We cannot punish men in America for the exercise of their freedom in political and religious belief," Harding
said.
Debs' legacy lived on. In July 1976, Congress
voted to restore posthumously his rights of citizenship. Debs remains a hero to many on the left, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who made a
documentary about him in 1979.
President Jimmy Carter
In 1977, President Jimmy Carter offered pardons to the tens of thousands of young men who had resisted the draft. Set against the aftermath of the Vietnam War, Carter ordered
Proclamation 4483 for those men who had resisted the Military Selective Service Act between 1964 and 1973. The proclamation
encouraged as many as 100,000 Americans who had fled the country, primarily to Canada, to return home. By affording widespread amnesty, Carter hoped to provide much needed reconciliation for a
divided country.
Widespread anti-war protests
had rocked the nation, including the killing of four university students at Kent State in 1970. And while President Gerald Ford had begun the process of reconciliation in 1974
by offering partial amnesty to draft resisters who performed public service, two years later, the question of full amnesty
hinged on the outcome of the presidential election.
While Carter had made widespread amnesty a
campaign promise, the backlash against the order was swift. Arizona Sen. Barry Goldwater
called it the "most disgraceful thing that a president has ever done." Similarly, veterans' organizations
opposed the move.
In the end, many American ex-pats
chose to stay in Canada. Nevertheless, Carter's sweeping offer of pardons
represented the essential humanity of a President who wanted to heal the country after a long and grueling war. Historians now look back on the decision as a
defining moment of Carter's presidency.
By contrast, these presidential pardons stirred further division and hurt the country in the long run.
President Gerald Ford
On September 8, 1974, President Gerald Ford
pardoned former President Richard Nixon for any crimes that he may have committed as part of the Watergate scandal. The announcement came on the heels of Ford's inaugural remarks of in August 1974, in which he
declared the country's "long national nightmare" to be over.
The Nixon pardon
shocked the nation, and the public outcry was palpable. Most Americans polled on the subject
wanted Nixon to be punished. At the very least, they wanted the judicial process to run its course. Some in Congress also decried that a deal had been cut between Nixon and Ford, though historians
generally doubt this view.
While it
tore apart his administration, Ford maintained that pardoning Nixon was the
right thing to do for the nation. In time, the view became more widely accepted, with even Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts
expressing his support of the decision.
But Ford also set a very troubling precedent. By not prosecuting the crimes of a public leader, a certain degree of