Trump takes pardons to a whole new level

The broad constitutional power of a president to pardon and commute federal sentences was justified by the nation's founders on the expectation that the executive would use it for mercy, correct a wrong or forgive a transgression.

Now, President Donald Trump is pushing the issuance of get-out-of-jail-free cards as personal favors to a whole new level. He's piling up questionable grants of clemency without full explanations. All of the Jan. 6 rioters are cleared; on Monday, the "Stop the Steal" schemers who tried to overturn the 2020 election, an effort led by former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, got their passes.

Other actions yield few clues for their motivation. Trump issued an innocuous pardon for onetime Mets star Darryl Strawberry. That’s nice, but it’s been 22 years since he finished serving 11 months in a Florida state prison for violating probation. Earlier the "Straw Man" pleaded no contest to drug and solicitation charges.

Not so nice, or understandable, was the president's pardon of Jonathan Braun of Lawrence. In 2021 Trump commuted his 10-year sentence for drug and money laundering. Braun had connections to the family of Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law — specifically his father Charles Kushner, now Trump's ambassador to France.

Now Braun has been charged with a series of physical and sexual assaults over the last two years and on Monday was sentenced to 2½ years in prison. The original charges that sent him to prison involved a marijuana smuggling operation. Braun's lawyer blames his addiction, as was done in previous cases.

Another new allegation highlights Trump's preference for leniency over law and order in cases involving his political supporters. Christopher Moynihan was described by officials as one of the first MAGA rioters to breach the barricades on Jan. 6, 2021, and enter the Capitol grounds. He was sentenced in February 2023 to 21 months in prison. But Trump pardoned Moynihan as one of about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants upon retaking office this year. Moynihan was arrested in October after saying in text messages that he planned to eliminate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

Then there was last month's break for Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance, a cryptocurrency exchange. Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering charges brought by the Biden administration. But Binance has links to Trump family crypto ventures, spawning murky questions.

Few presidents have escaped criticism over their pardon decisions. President Joe Biden's full pardon for his son Hunter for his gun and tax convictions prompted an uproar. But Trump seems determined to empty the federal prisons and clear the legal records of everyone who has or can be helpful to him. Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for acting as the groomer in Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking operation, is waiting for her turn.

Congress and the courts have limited oversight over this presidential power but they can demand Trump's actions be in the public interest, not just his.