The U.S. presidential pardon power is evolving before our very eyes — and not in a good way.
First outgoing President Joe Biden pardoned government officials and family members who had committed no crimes to preclude vindictive prosecutions by incoming President Donald Trump. Then Trump, who was criminally prosecuted by the Biden administration, pardoned or commuted the sentences of 1,600 people who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
The upshot of this extraordinary flood of pardons is that the power is becoming increasingly personalized to the president and his political allies. That development runs counter to the underlying ideal of the rule of law, which is that the law should apply equally to everyone.
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