You didn't think Trump was going to spend the last few weeks of his term in office NOT pardoning people, did you? Because if there's one thing we should've all realized by now, it's that this president is capable of anything. When you have no moral compass and have almost unlimited authority under the Constitution, you're going to use it. I say "almost" because Trump was ultimately unable to upend the election results. Fortunately for the country, the system he railed against for four years proved to be too much even for him. But I'll speak to that in a later piece.
Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were givens. Frankly, I would've been surprised if he hadn't pardoned those two. Most of the rest are part and parcel to the kind of cronyism that Trump has exhibited all throughout his presidency. The more egregious the crime, the more likely the pardon.
But the four that stand out the most are Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, the Blackwater operatives who were convicted of murdering 14 Iraqi citizens and wounding 17 others while on patrol in Baghdad in 2007. It took the government nearly nine years before they finally convicted five men for the massacre. As is typical for Trump, the one who cooperated with the prosecutors - Jeremy Ridgeway - did not receive a pardon, though he did receive a reduced sentence for his cooperation.
It is one thing to issue pardons to people guilty of political corruption in this country; it is quite another to pardon those found guilty of war crimes. For the last four years, the world has looked on in horror at the escapades of this president and his reality TV administration, wondering if the United States was finished as a democracy. But until a few days ago, the embarrassment was primarily confined to matters of domestic politics. Now the world knows first hand that the country which led the military tribunals against the Nazis at Nuremberg at the conclusion of World War II has granted safe haven to its own war criminals.
Now, mind you, I'm not suggesting that this is the first instance of the military overstepping its bounds. Sadly, the United States has on more than one occasion soiled its reputation. Indeed, the entire Iraq war has gone down as the worst foreign policy disaster in the nation's history. But these four pardons are not only a slap in the face to the victim's families, they greatly diminish whatever is left of America's reputation on the world stage. Joe Biden will have his work cut out for him trying to rebuild the bridge Trump has blown up.
As to whether these pardons can be rescinded, it's unlikely that they can. Unfortunately, the Constitution does grant the executive sole discretion to issue pardons, and that power is not open to review. But there might be a method by which justice can be done. While Biden may not be able to reverse the pardons, he would have the authority to turn all four men over to the Iraqi government where they can be tried and most likely convicted of war crimes. And I'm guessing the penalty for such crimes in that country would be far more severe than the sentences that were handed down from an American jury.
I'm just spitballing here, but handing over four unrepentant war criminals who deserve the same fate they doled out to innocent Iraqis would allow Biden to prove that the United States is indeed serious about reestablishing itself as the leading voice of democracy in the world.
It's certainly something he should at least consider.
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