Scheming liberals think they have checkmated Republicans by charging them with crimes in state court in Atlanta and in Michigan. Scary terms like “unpardonable” littered the airwaves on the Sunday morning talk shows, misleading the public to think that President Trump cannot pardon crimes prosecuted in state court. This is more fake news by the Left. A conservative president in 2025 would have total power to pardon all who have been victimized by these politically motivated prosecutions, including those criminally charged in state court.
Many presidential pardons over more than two centuries have fully protected the recipients against “all prosecutions and judicial proceedings,” as President Washington broadly stated in his first pardon in 1797. No one credibly doubted then or now that a presidential pardon protects against state court prosecutions.
The text of the Constitution and decisions by the Supreme Court support a broad pardon power as a prerogative exclusive to the president. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that “pardon and commutation decisions have not traditionally been the business of courts; as such, they are rarely, if ever, appropriate subjects for judicial review.”
It will be up to the president, not the courts, whom to pardon. Chief Justice Rehnquist explained on behalf of the Supreme Court that “the clemency and pardon power is committed, as is our tradition, to the authority of the executive.” The Pardon Clause is set forth in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the Constitution, and applies to all “Offenses against the United States.” All of the election integrity conduct by Republicans is viewed by Trump-haters as an offense against federal elections, and thus the conduct is pardonable regardless of where charges are filed.
Any candidate for office who uses the line that the president cannot pardon in state cases as an excuse not to commit to pardoning Trump and other targeted Republicans is a liar. We need a president who understands the proper role of the presidential pardoning power as a tool to right injustices in our judicial system.
