Thread by @jedshug

After investing a lot of time researching & questioning the law of pardons, I think the left is too worked up about the validity of Trump pardons:

1. Of the concrete issues facing the US in 2021, it's not even close to the top 100.
2. State crim law covers the worst conduct.

3. Pardon panic is producing too many unforced errors by journalists and legal commentators.
For example, accepting a pardon is NOT an admission of guilt according to American law & practice, no matter what you've read on this website:

https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1331725515401666560?s=20

4. The eagerness to interpret accepting a pardon as evidence of guilt runs roughshod over the presumption of innocence, doubts about prosecutorial power, the value of mercy, and years of work using DNA exonerations for pardons:

https://twitter.com/jedshug/status/1331727086227173383?s=20

5. Trump may actually be doing Biden and the Democrats a huge favor with these pardons:
Trump is expending a lot of political capital for his co-conspirators, when they nevertheless face state prosecutors & fed investigation of pardons as felony bribery/quid pro quo...

6. But the favor to Biden is that his DOJ would otherwise face thorny questions about the use of political capital - and questions about DOJ independence - if all the Russia/Ukraine/Turkey investigations were on the table.

Thankfully, state AGs and local DAs are independent.