Pardon This, Not That

In 1974, upon becoming the first president not to have been elected either to the presidency or vice presidency, Gerald Ford issued a presidential pardon to Richard Nixon, who had resigned the presidency in the wake of what was a likely prosecution for obstruction of justice in the Watergate mess.

Ford stated at the time that he wanted to get past Watergate, to move on with the governance of the country and not let ourselves be tied up in the morass of the prosecution of a former president.  He clearly meant that, and although it would ultimately lead to his defeat in 1976 and the abysmal presidency of Jimmy Carter, he was right in that we fairly quickly got on with the nation's business.

Today, the outgoing president and the president-elect will be faced with a situation that is only similar in that a "pardon" is involved for a former government official.  Obviously, we are talking about Hillary Clinton.

If Barack Obama chooses not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton for either of the two major investigations she is a party to, then Donald Trump will have to decide to do so or not, and there are a few inputs into that.  Not the least of those is that the two sets of crimes she is assumed to have committed are very, very different.

What a President Trump decides to do about the use of a private server, and the absolutely atrocious handling of classified documentation, set against other people's recent convictions for the same thing, is one thing.  The Clinton Foundation is quite another.

When and if Donald Trump takes office with Hillary unpardoned, I'm actually quite fine if he himself decides to pardon her for the mishandling of classified material, as long as she is banned for life from ever again having a clearance to view it.  After all, the lesson to the rest of us has already been taught; government is not likely to allow such a thing ever to be done again.

Moreover, Hillary is not going to be elected to public office again, she wouldn't ever have a public office requiring a clearance, and we are probably protected from her.  At least we can hope.  As much as I'd like to see her in jail for mishandling classified information, that I can live with.  It would show Trump to be the better person and, by only pardoning her for the server and classified material handling, and barring her from a clearance, he does the right thing.

However ... the email server was a Hillary-alone thing.  She was enabled in doing so, yes, but aside from Barack Obama, the others who enabled her worked for her; their jobs depended on pleasing her.  The Clinton Foundation is a whole 'nother thing.

The Clinton Foundation investigation is being done by another part of the FBI, and should be allowed in a Trump Administration to proceed at the FBI's pace.  And there should be no pardon for that.  You see, Hillary was only part of the Foundation, and if it is determined to be a Racketeer-Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) case, then we are talking about a set of people, including at least Bill and Chelsea Clinton and their lawyers and legal advisors, officials at the Foundation and maybe others, all of whom could be convicted under RICO statutes.

That investigation needs to continue, because no one has learned a lesson on that one, no one has been punished yet, and it is perfectly reasonable to think that some other future official or family may think it can get away with the same thing to enrich themselves and the USA be darned.  People need to go to jail for the Foundation's corruption in feeding money to the Clinton family for Hillary doling out favors to foreign governments.

That needs to stay with the FBI and worked to its conclusion, and some people need to be punished, lest there be another Clinton Foundation, this time truly sinking our nation.  We need to know that the law is indeed applied to the few equally with the many.

The current one is bad enough.  Someone needs to go to prison.

Copyright 2016 by Robert Sutton
Like what you read here?  There's a new post from Bob at www.uberthoughtsUSA.com at 10am Eastern time, every weekday, giving new meaning to "prolific essayist."  Sponsorship and interview inquiries cheerfully welcomed at bsutton@alum.mit.edu or on Twitter at @rmosutton.