Presidents can no longer rely on amnesty

Ours is a “check and balance” system.

The president can do this or that, but the courts and Congress can prevent it (depending on the circumstances and the relevant regulations). When the courts rule that the executive branch can’t do something, Congress can write a new law that the president can do. When Congress passes a law that the President does not like, the President can veto it. Congress, if it has enough votes, can override the veto. And so on. The whole idea is to reject the over-concentrated power of any department or person.

I’m sorry if I sound a bit condescending because everyone should have learned this stuff in class. But it seems a lot of people have forgotten how our system is supposed to work, so I thought a quick review might be helpful.

However, even under our system, each department has powers that cannot really be checked. For example, Congress has the sole authority to tax and spend taxpayer money, declare war, etc. Once a court acquits a defendant, the defendant cannot be tried again for that crime.

The president also has some special powers. Including the sole, final authority to grant pardons, which cannot be reviewed or revoked by Congress or the courts.

It’s time we change that – and the only way to do that is by amending the Constitution.

There are two reasons for removing the president’s power to pardon. The first is the egregious abuse of that power by President Trump and Biden. In his first term, Trump released a series of series I’m sorry among others, crazy, the war Criminals and political allies.

Biden then issued blanket and preemptive statements sorry for the his the family and various political allies. Party advocates like to say it was necessary to protect Biden from harassment by a future Trump administration. Ignores these safeguards Biden the family a lot Shadow business transaction. They also ignore a raft of other amnesties and changes that Biden claims were just outsourced to ideologues on his staff.

Back in office in 2025, Trump turned on Biden (and himself). He began his second term by granting a mass amnesty to thugs who beat police with flags and attacked his representatives in the capital on January 6, 2021. Since then, he has forgiven a rogues gallery of crypto-Zawing, Chengbing Bei, the business leader of Chengheng, donors, partisan allies and people with business ties to his family. The platform that permission Terrorist and criminal organizations finance their operations under the radar.

Zhao pleaded guilty to money laundering, but he also worked with patience Trump family to promote crypto business. Of course it is appears that he received pardon in return for services rendered.

A second reason for removing the president’s pardon power involves those old checks and balances. The Founding Fathers believed that the only remedy for corrupt abuses or pardons was impeachment. James Madison, the original author of the Constitution, was clear on this point.

At the Virginia Ratification Convention, George Mason protested that the pardon power was too great, and that presidents could use pardons to subjugate criminal activity on their behalf. Madison answered If the president has a suspicious relationship with anyone [such] persons, and there is reason to believe that he will shelter himself, the House of Representatives may impeach him.

The problem: Congress’s impeachment power has proven to be a dead letter in the modern age of hyper-partisanship. Just as presidents cannot be trusted to use the pardon power responsibly, Congress cannot be trusted with the responsibility to hold presidents accountable. Without a check, there is no balance.

There should be room for forgiveness and forgiveness in our system. But leaving it to presidents alone has led to abuse forever. In fact, I think it’s almost a certainty that Trump will use Biden’s example to pardon most of his administration, his sons, and himself before leaving office. Given the ongoing weaponization of the justice system—and its abuse—he would almost be a fool not to.

The Constitution was written by George Washington with men in mind. When Washington decided to leave office after two terms, it established a two-term tradition that continued until Franklin Roosevelt broke it. Later, we amended the constitution to reflect what was customary.

For most of our history, presidents have taken pardons — and the threat of impeachment — seriously. They don’t anymore. Now is the time to change the constitution.

X: @JonahDispatch