They’re calling it ‘Pardonpalooza’ – which is pretty catchy to be fair.
Donald Trump’s time as the president of the United States is coming to an end. Take a certain to breath a sigh of relief if you need to right now. All good? Sweet.
President-elect Joe Biden will be sworn is as the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, and while he is set to enact a series of climate action policies – including resigning the US back up to the Paris Climate Accord – his predecessor is expected to spend his final hours as president issuing a flurry of pardons.
It’s understood that Trump is planning on pardoning as many as 100 people on his final day, though any plans he initially had to pardon himself are said to be off the table.
Trump has already pardoned a long list of people, often bypassing the Office of the Pardon Attorney (OPA), which in the past has been a key advisor on issues of clemency for American presidents.
While presidential pardons are not uncommon, Trump has regularly been accused of granting clemency to supporters and political allies.
In July 2020, he pardoned Roger Stone, who had been convicted of witness tampering, obstructing an official proceeding, and five counts of making false statements as part of Robert Mueller’s special counsel investigation.
Among the names being touted for presidential pardons over the next day are rapper Lil Wayne, who has been charged with possession of a firearm, and New York assembly speaker Sheldon Silver, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2015.
Joe Exotic, the man we all became temporarily obsessed with while trying to get to grips with living in a lockdown and then completely forgot, is also said to be anticipating a pardon from Trump.
So confident is he, in fact, that he has reportedly got a limo waiting for him outside of his prison.
While Trump is reported to have spoken at length about the prospect of pardoning himself and members of his family, it is understood that he has been dissuaded from doing so.
A presidential self-pardon has never been done and it is not yet clear how it would stand up in a court of law.
Trump is said to fear becoming a target for prosecutors in the United States over his business empire, as well as his recent attempts to overturn his loss in the election, which resulted in an attempted and failed insurrection by his supporters at the US Capitol earlier this month.
Former president Richard Nixon, who was impeached and left office following the Watergate scandal, was subsequently pardoned by the man who replaced him, Gerald Ford.
Biden is not expected to show Trump the same clemency.
