 |
By The RepresentUs Team March 26, 2026 |
What is a presidential pardon?
In simple terms, a presidential pardon is an official act of forgiveness from the president. It’s one of the most important and powerful authorities that a U.S. president has.
Through a pardon, a president can forgive federal crimes and restore many of the civil rights that may have been lost after a conviction. It’s a power that can be used to show mercy or correct injustices. In an ideal world, the pardon power serves as a safeguard against overly harsh or unjust outcomes in federal criminal law enforcement.
What crimes can a president pardon?
In the Constitution, Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 says:
The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States; he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.
👉 The Constitution gives the president the broad authority to pardon anyone of any federal crime before charges are filed, while a case is ongoing, or after someone has been convicted.
What are the limits on presidential pardons?
The president’s pardon power is very broad, but it’s not unlimited. A presidential pardon does not cover:
- Criminal charges under state law
- Civil lawsuits or private legal claims
- Cases of impeachment
State-level criminal charges can only be pardoned by governors or state pardon boards.
How do you get a pardon?
Though ultimate pardon power rests with the president, Congress created the Office of the Pardon Attorney in 1891 to assist the president with exercising pardon power. This office sits within the Department of Justice and serves in a purely advisory role that seeks to provide the president with the best information possible to make fair and just pardon decisions.
Typically, when someone applies for a pardon, the Office of the Pardon Attorney will consider a few standards when evaluating someone’s request for a pardon:
- Has it been 5 years since their sentence?
- Have they accepted responsibility for the offense?
- How have they behaved since their conviction?
- How serious was their crime?
The FBI will conduct a full background investigation on an applicant and prosecutors, judges, and victims may be given a chance to weigh in.
When the Office of the Pardon Attorney is satisfied that a pardon should be considered, they will forward their recommendation to the Deputy Attorney General and the White House lawyers who will discuss with the president.
Again, they are just giving advice for the president, and the president does not legally need to listen to their recommendations, nor do they need to follow this process to exercise their pardon power.
How the pardon system can be abused
The power to pardon ultimately belongs to the president, but the review process run by the Office of the Pardon Attorney is meant to help ensure that pardons are granted through a fair and legitimate process, not because of money or political connections.
However, in recent years we’ve seen examples of the president sidestepping the Office of the Pardon Attorney and abuse pardon power in three ways:
- Pardons for wealthy and well-connected people
- Pardons for allies who broke the law to benefit the president
- Pardons as a way to secure or reward loyalty
1. Pardons for the wealthy and well-connected
Under the second Trump Administration, the Office of the Pardon Attorney has had its staff drastically reduced. In place of the usual pardon process, an entire pardon-shopping industry seems to have emerged, where wealthy offenders spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars either funding the president’s initiatives or hiring lobbyists and political insiders with access to the president.
Consider these recent pardons:
Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating anti-money-laundering laws through his crypto firm. When Trump came into office the second time, the Trump family had become heavily invested in crypto as well, including with a $2 billion investment in Binance.1 After reportedly spending nearly $450,000 on a lobbying firm run by a Trump ally2, Zhao received a pardon from Trump in 2025.
Joseph Schwartz pleaded guilty to a $38 million tax fraud scheme involving nursing homes but received a pardon after serving just three months of a three-year sentence. He had spent nearly $1 million on political operatives and lobbyists connected to the president’s orbit.3
Paul Walczak, another nursing home executive, pleaded guilty to tax fraud after withholding more than $10 million from employee paychecks. He received a pardon after his mother attended a $1 million fundraiser dinner at Trump’s resort and had raised millions for his campaigns.4
Trevor Milton was convicted in 2023 of defrauding investors. He donated $1.8 million to Trump’s re-election campaign, and received a pardon in March 2025.5
Trump is not the first president to issue pardons for wealthy and well-connected individuals. President Joe Biden bypassed the Justice Department process to pardon his son (and he is far from the only president to pardon a relative). President Bill Clinton pardoned the financier Marc Rich whose ex-wife had made donations to the Democrats and to the Clinton Presidential Library.
But the development of what appears to be a market for pardons in Trump’s second term, that is benefiting multiple wealthy or well-connected individuals, is taking this problem to a whole new level.
2. Pardons for allies who broke the law to benefit the president
Presidents also should not be able to use the pardon power in self-serving ways, including to facilitate or cover up crimes or misconduct.
The independent counsel in charge of investigating the Iran-Contra Affair described George H.W. Bush’s pre-emptive pardons of the defendants as the final act of a “cover-up”, arguing they prevented full accountability for deception and obstruction by high-ranking Reagan and Bush administration officials.
President Trump pardoned nearly 1,600 rioters involved in the Jan 6 insurrection, many of whom were charged with very serious crimes like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Congress was in session to confirm the results of the 2020 elections and the rioters were attempting to interrupt or disrupt on behalf of Trump.
Relatedly, Trump had also symbolically pardoned several allies including Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman, and Sidney Powell whom Special Counsel Jack Smith had identified as co-conspirators in Trump’s attempt to overturn the election.
3. Pardons as a tool to secure or reward loyalty
Pardons should also not be using pardons to reward political loyalty or encourage support.
Rep. Henry Cuellar from Texas, a Democrat, was charged with bribery, money laundering, and conspiracy after allegedly accepting thousands of dollars from foreign interests to advance their agendas in Congress. Trump pardoned him, but apparently expected Cuellar to then support the president: soon after, Trump blasted Cuellar publicly for not switching to the Republican party, calling him disloyal.
President Trump pardoned former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, both Democrats, who have gone on to be very public and useful vocal supporters for Trump, even campaigning for him.
If pardons become transactional or influenced by money, connections, political loyalty, it destroys the idea that our laws apply equally, that consequences are real, and the justice system is fair. Justice should not depend on who you know, how much money you can spend, or what you can do for the president.
Can a president self-pardon?
President Richard Nixon considered pardoning himself at the height of the Watergate Scandal but left office in 1974 before doing so. President Trump has claimed that he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself, but hasn’t done so.
A president has never actually gone through with a self-pardon but most legal experts believe that a president probably cannot pardon themself.
In a survey of law school faculty members, most of the respondents concluded that a self-pardon by a president would probably be unconstitutional.
Even the Department of Justice weighed in on the matter in a memo and said that self-pardons would likely be unconstitutional because of the “fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case”.
Can a pardon be overturned?
No pardon has historically been overturned in the US, but in theory, the courts could step in on situations where presidents exceeded their authority (if the president were to try to issue a pardon for a state crime, for example), or if there was some other violation of the Constitution.
In other countries and under international law, there are certain serious crimes–such as crimes against humanity–that cannot be pardoned. In Argentina, for example, courts eventually overturned laws that gave amnesties (which like pardons wipe out criminal liability) to members of the military junta who had overseen a campaign of torture, forced disappearances, and killings. People who received the amnesty later faced trial.
What can Congress do about problematic pardons?
The Courts have said that a president’s pardon authority comes directly from the Constitution and cannot be limited by Congress, nor can future presidents undo pardons by their predecessors.
Congress, however, still has an oversight role to play on pardons. While under current case law they cannot overturn a pardon, they can still hold hearings and conduct investigations into whether pardons were granted as part of something illegal or improper like a corruption or bribery scheme, for example.
In cases where a president is engaging in bribery related to duties of their office, the Justice Department has explicitly said:
“The Constitution confers no power in the President to receive bribes; in fact, it specifically forbids any increase in the President’s compensation for his service while he is in office, which is what a bribe would function to do.”
As the ultimate check on presidential corruption, the Constitution gives Congress the power to impeach the president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors”.
It’s Congress’ job to check the executive branch
Congress has a duty to investigate allegations of corruption, bribery, or abuse of power by the executive branch, including whether pardons or other government decisions are being influenced by money or political connections. It can hold hearings, issue subpoenas, and expose misconduct to the public.
When pardons are tied to bribery or other abuses of power, the Constitution gives Congress the authority to impeach the president for “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.” It also has the power to impeach cabinet members who are involved in similar misconduct.
If there are credible concerns that pardons are being granted for personal, political, or financial gain rather than for justice or mercy, Congress has both the authority and the responsibility to act. Without oversight, the pardon power risks becoming a tool of favoritism and corruption rather than a safeguard for fairness in the legal system.
Sign the petition: Tell Congress to Investigate Abuse of Pardon Power
Related Reading
