House Dems push legislation to criminalize quid-pro-quo pardons

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The House Judiciary Committee has teed up a bill that would criminalize a presidential pardon offered in exchange for anything of value — such as a witness' silence — a key addition to legislation already slated for consideration that would empower Congress to investigate potential abuse of the pardon power.

Under the updated proposal from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a presidential pardon granted — or dangled — in order to obtain a "thing of value" would be punished under federal bribery laws. The restriction would include not just pardons but commutations — reprieves that reduce criminals' prison sentences but maintain their convictions.

The sweeping measure is aimed at curtailing abuses of the pardon power that Democrats allege were committed by President Donald Trump in the commutation granted to his longtime confidant, Roger Stone. Stone was convicted last year of repeatedly lying to the House Intelligence Committee in its investigation of links between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia — a probe that also examined Trump himself.

Trump has assailed Stone's prosecution as politically motivated, even though the Justice Department repeatedly defended it and Attorney General William Barr called it "righteous." Democrats described Stone's pardon as an unprecedented abuse intended to reward a close ally of the president for frustrating the efforts of investigators looking at Trump's knowledge of a Russian interference effort that damaged his 2016 opponent, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/house-dems-push-legislation-to-criminalize-quid-pro-quo-pardons/ar-BB173x8k?li=BBnb7Kz

[pandr32]

1. Good, but it won't go anywhere

...at least until we control Congress, but let the Republicans know what is coming! Their corrupt ways are coming to an end.

[LaMouffette]

2. The ONLY silver lining in Trump's presidency that I can see . . .

is that he has exposed hundreds of incredibly damaging loopholes in our laws and procedures that left us vulnerable to the monumental abuses of power by this out-and-out pillaging of our country. It goes without saying that these loopholes need to be closed up immediately once Dems are back in control.

If we survive this, there is the slim hope that once this ship is righted again, that we will be a vastly wiser country for having survived the conman/criminal/devil's spawn that is Trump.

The Trump presidency is very much like 9/11. Pretty much no one imagined that people would hijack planes and crash them into buildings, committing suicide in service to their cause. That's why they advised airline employees to just cooperate with hijackers, to just do what they say and no one would get hurt. Americans value their own lives too much to conceive of someone else doing this heinous act.

In the same way, the majority of Americans are law-abiding citizens who care about others and who care about the planet and who care about their children's future.

Because of this, we couldn't imagine a president who has complete and total disregard for the law, who would ignore subpoenas, ignore requests for his financial information, who would send federal troops to quash peaceful protests, who would separate babies from their mothers, who is a sexual predator, who cares about no one but himself, who values money above all else, who would use the power of the presidency to enrich himself over and over and over again.

We never saw Trump coming. But once he's gone, we have to prepare for the next Trump. Just like we have to prepare for the next 9/11 and the next pandemic.

(Damn. This is my day off and I'm spending it as usual: getting pissed off at the latest outrage. I'm going to log off and go for a hike somewhere pretty and not watch any news for the rest of the day. Everybody please stay safe out there.]

[BComplex]

3. After Biden gets in and we take over the senate, this needs to go through immediately.

But it also needs to state that it immediately removes the president from his position.