All the president’s pardons

WHEN AMERICA’S founders included in the constitution the power to “grant reprieves and pardons for crimes against the United States”, they sought to hand presidents a “benign prerogative” to show mercy to repentant law-breakers and “restore the tranquillity of the commonwealth”, as Alexander Hamilton put it in Federalist 74; without such a tool, he fretted, “justice would wear a countenance too sanguinary and cruel”. Opponents worried that it would tilt the nation towards “vile and arbitrary aristocracy or monarchy”.

The anti-federalists, it seems, were right to be concerned. On December 22nd and 23rd President Donald Trump put his signature on nearly 50 eyebrow-raising pardons and commutations. The beneficiaries included his longtime confidant, Roger Stone; his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort; and several others prosecuted as part of Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Others were Charles Kushner, Ivanka Trump’s father-in-law, who spent two years in prison for witness-tampering and tax evasion; three former Republican members of Congress convicted of fraud and financial misdeeds; and military contractors responsible for killing unarmed civilians during the Iraq war.

Removing these figures from the naughty list sets the 45th president apart from his predecessors. In the...