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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   32107 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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Biden just set a precedent of pardoning future crimes.

It's minimal - the pardon was issued during the day Sunday and covered up until Sunday at midnight - and probably accidental; it feels like someone leaked the pardon news so Biden just ripped the bandaid off and pardoned Hunter a day early.

Pardoning for future crimes - however minimal - is still improper. Ex parte Garland states that presidential pardons are only for crimes after the crime's commission. But the Hunter pardon wasn't written to be severable (i.e., if a part is deemed invalid, the whole can still stand). Is Hunter Biden's pardon thus entirely invalid, because the couple of hours of future pardon is "against the rules?"

Or will we as a country accept the pardoning of future crimes moving forward? Can Trump now walk into the Oval Office day one and issue pardons for his entire administration for any federal crimes committed during his tenure? He can point to the Hunter pardon as allowing this kind of power, and he wouldn't necessarily be incorrect.

Social media marked all of this up as jokes - "Hunter can go on a one man purge tonight!!" and "hookers and crack for Hunter tonight!" I haven't seen it floating around legal blogs or anything of the like quite yet, although in the grand scheme of things, a few hours of future immunity isn't that big of a deal.

For the party of "Defending Democracy™️", pardoning crimes not yet committed is not really what they should be going for. The culture war discussion will focus on Biden being a liar yadda yadda, but the scarier part of this is the few hours of future immunity until midnight yesterday remaining unchallenged.

It seems likely that the pardon would actually be filed at some point in the future, and cover the dates listed. What you were seeing was the press release, which was released just before the end of the period he was covering for the pardon.

"A presidential pardon by proclamation is a way for a president to grant clemency to a defined group of people. The pardon is effective as of the date of the proclamation for individuals who fall within the defined group. "

I think it is effective immediately. The above quote is from the DOD about a past pardon.

https://www.defense.gov/Spotlights/Presidential-Pardon-Resources/

And Bidens pardon of Hunter (up to and including 1.Dec) was signed and released on 1.Dec:

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/12/01/statement-from-president-joe-biden-11/

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