presidential pardon
Trump Calls Himself the 'Chief Law Enforcement Officer of the Country'
"NARRATOR: He is not the chief law enforcement officer in the country."
Telling reporters on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews that he had commuted the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and pardoned former San Francisco 49ers owner Edward DeBartolo, financier Michael Milken, and former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik, President Donald Trump said that in his own opinion he was the country's top cop.
"I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country," Trump said.
Watch:
\u201cTRUMP: "I'm actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country." (The attorney general is the top law enforcement officer of the country.)\u201d— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1582051485
"NARRATOR: He is not the chief law enforcement officer in the country," tweeted filmmaker Billy Corben.
As Attorney General, a position created by the Judiciary Act of 1789, William Barr is the nation's chief law enforcement officer.
But, as New York Times reporter Charlie Savage pointed out on Twitter, Barr himself endorses Trump's view.
"William Barr likes to say that the president is the chief law enforcement officer of the country," said Savage. "It's part of his unitary executive theory mindset."
Trump's decision to commute and pardon Tuesday's quartet was seen by observers as another example of the president's corruption.
In a statement, Common Cause Illinois said that by commuting Blagojevich's sentence, Trump was sending a clear message to other corrupt politicians.
"This decision is wrong and deprives the people of Illinois the justice they deserve," the group said. "After consistently ignoring our nation's ethics norms and laws for the last three years, President Trump has now chosen to side with the long line of Illinois politicians that have been imprisoned or had their careers ended due to corruption."
Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) issued a scathing statement on the pardons, drawing attention to Milken's crimes in particular.
"Trump has used pardons almost exclusively to shield unrepentant felons, racists, and corrupt scoundrels like Blagojevich and now Milken, one of the most prolific financial criminals in U.S. history," said Pascrell. "The presidential pardon is sacred under the Constitution and perhaps represents Trump's most dangerous abuse of power precisely because the pardon power is unfettered and cannot be reviewed by Congress or the courts."
\u201cWH press release on Kerik and Milken pardons mentions support from numerous figures from Trump world and conservative media.\u201d— Jim Acosta (@Jim Acosta) 1582054848
In a statement, Media Matters for America spokesperson Laura Keiter said that Trump's tying of the pardons and commutations to Fox News was just another example of the corrupting influence of the network.
"President Trump's pardon of Bernard Kerik and commutation of Rod Blagojevich's sentence are further proof that Fox News continues to help drive the agenda of Trump's White House," said Keiter. "This is the 11th time that Trump's use of executive clemency and pardons has been linked to his Fox News obsession."
Blagojevich's appearance on Trump's long-lived NBC reality show "The Apprentice" and the president's history of attacking the Central Park Five present a telling contrast, said Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington researcher Robert Maguire.
"As Trump commutes the sentence of a former contestant on his reality TV show who went to jail for crimes he was literally caught committing, it's worth noting that Trump called for the Central Park Five to get the death penalty, and he still thinks they're guilty," said Maguire.
'Of Men, Not Law': To Make America Hate Again
To pardon a public official who refuses to obey the law (especially a direct court order) is to give the finger to the judiciary, and thus our constitutional order
Aristotle said the rule of law is better than the rule of men. Having law above us guides us - away from our corrupt destructive impulses, enabling greater peace, liberty, prosperity and security. The current head of the U.S. has wrought havoc on rule of law norms by inciting hate and lawlessness and sowing chaos - the antithesis of law and order. His hasty pardon of a cruel racist sheriff post-Charlottesville is simply the latest action taken to undermine the judiciary and divide people.
Donald Trump has raged particularly against the judiciary and the press - the two institutions vital to checking tyranny. The judiciary is the branch of government most independent of politics, and thus best able to safeguard constitutional values. Federal judges ruled Sheriff Arpaio's indiscriminate dragnet detention of peoples in violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. When he persisted with racial profiling of Latinos he was in held in contempt of direct court orders.
To pardon a public official who refuses to obey the law (especially a direct court order) is to give the finger to the judiciary, and thus our constitutional order. It encourages further lawlessness. It unleashes bias, hate, vigilantism, mob rule. And it hits where the rubber meets the street. Most people encounter law via policing, so when racist cops are unmoored then law is seen as a threat, not a protector. There is a circular logic to the fear and hate-mongering of 45* which need be recognized and thwarted. The writing was clearly on the wall.
Citizen Trump made his entry into public policy by calling on New York to re-implement the death penalty in order to execute young black men wrongfully accused of raping a white woman. And old story seized upon by this opportunist hater to raise his profile. That he still called for the execution of the Central Park Five after they were exonerated should have disqualified him from holding office in any reasonable society. Yet today he is the inciter-in-chief of the lynch mob, hailing the unrepentant racist former Sheriff as a "patriot" who was treated "unbelievable unfairly" by the courts. An emboldened Arpaio then echoed 45*'s slander of federal judges, making unsubstantiated claims of Judge Susan Bolton's (who issued the contempt order) bias.
45* has brought Jersey-style governance to the capital, where he employs the tactics of Tony Soprano and Rupert Murdoch to hold sway over others. Payback against the Arizona Senators who had sought to assert independence from the psycho-in-chief was the most likely impetus for the Arpaio pardon. As well, he was sending a message to others (e.g., those Special Prosecutor Mueller will question), as mobsters do. Loyalty and betrayal - the be-all end-all of mobsters. Dismantling the administrative state creates a void for racketeering.
The reaction must be a mass mobilization to resist this dictatorial agenda. Counting on our existing political parties is foolish; looking to the Supreme Court is a wishful prayer. Affected communities are at the vanguard of the resistance. Using the courts in the battle against tyranny is a vital tactic, as is protest by putting bodies in the streets, even in the face of the resumption of the military equipment transfer to police program and the increasing criminalization of dissent.
We now know that 45* never consulted the Department of Justice before issuing the Pardon, and that he has snubbed and undermined its mission of equal justice under law since taking power. Thankfully, the DOJ and federal judges have not succumbed to his mobster tactics. The judiciary should be receptive to petitions from people hurt by the unlawful actions of the current U.S. administration - that is all of us.