Executive Branch

Donald Trump’s Pardon Power and the State of Exception

Quinta Jurecic
Monday, June 11, 2018, 7:30 AM

President Trump has been merciful lately. In April, he pardoned Scooter Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity.

President-elect Donald Trump prepares to depart the White House for the inaugural ceremony on January 20, 2017

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President Trump has been merciful lately. In April, he pardoned Scooter Libby, the former aide to Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury, obstruction of justice, and making false statements in the investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent’s identity. In the past two weeks, he has granted pardons to deceased boxer Jack Johnson and right-wing political commentator Dinesh D’Souza and commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson—a woman sentenced to life in prison for a nonviolent offense—apparently on the request of Kim Kardashian West.

Trump, however, has another target in mind for his grace. On Twitter last week, he took things a step further:


Quinta Jurecic is a fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution and a senior editor at Lawfare. She previously served as Lawfare's managing editor and as an editorial writer for the Washington Post.

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