The Political Depravity of Unjust Pardons

I'm furious at the recent presidential pardons. And you should be too. These pardons aren't normal. Warning: Contains opinion. #OpEd

GOT A VIDEO IDEA? TELL ME!
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

MY COURSES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

SOCIAL MEDIA & DISCUSSIONS
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

BUSINESS INQUIRIES
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀

LEGAL-ISH DISCLAIMER
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
Sorry, occupational hazard: This is not legal advice, nor can I give you legal advice. I AM NOT YOUR LAWYER. Sorry! Everything here is for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. You should contact your attorney to obtain advice with respect to any particular issue or problem. Nothing here should be construed to form an attorney-client relationship. Also, some of the links in this post may be affiliate links, meaning, at no cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. But if you click, it really helps me make more of these videos! All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes. See Hosseinzadeh v. Klein, 276 F.Supp.3d 34 (S.D.N.Y. 2017); Equals Three, LLC v. Jukin Media, Inc., 139 F. Supp. 3d 1094 (C.D. Cal. 2015).

Special thanks:
Stock video and imagery provided by Getty Images
Music provided by Epidemic Sound

[PlagueOfGripes]

Too many laws are propped up with the notion of "Oh, someone with power would never do that. Something would happen." There are no consequences when those in power don't want there to be consequences, and especially when the laws don't list any consequences.

[Mike]

This is why local politics matter

Vote in everything

Replace your senator, congressman, even your sheriff and city council/board member

[haresmahmood]

This feels like having to listen to your teacher who never gets angry, but oh shit she really is furious now

[bjvdkez]

Watching this over a year later is tough because we know so much more about how much worse it can get

[callingyouout]

You said "You should absolutely be filled with rage." and I agree, but the sad truth is that we've become numb. How often can you become shocked? How often can you become outraged at the bottom of the barrel behavior, only to find that they've done the impossible yet again and found a new, uncharted and unimagined depth to sink to? If you startle someone with a shockingly loud noise repeatedly, they will eventually stop responding. They will acclimatize and become used to it. it will no longer get a response. The same thing has happened to us emotionally. They've worn us down to the point that really no level of depravity surprises us anymore. If they leave with the portrait of Lincoln under one arm and the white house silver under the other, there are very few non-trumpist who will even blink at this point. That's incredibly sad and something we all have to fight against. I include myself in that number. When I heard about the pardons, I just shrugged, because of course he would do that. Let me be clear. I still think it's wrong. I still believe that something should and must be done. But after weekly if not daily fits of rage during the first year, my capacity to stay outraged has been worn to almost nothing. Good on you for having retained yours.

[extremephillyfishing]

100% agreed. I came to the USA 13 years ago. Nowadays, I am a permanent resident and I am on my path to Citizenship.
And just recently I found out about this "presidential pardon" system, and I was MINDBLOWN. Totally MINDBLOWN.
I mean...one of the civics questions in the USCIS exam is about the "rule of law."
"Everyone must follow the law. Leaders must obey the law. Government must obey the law. NO ONE is ABOVE THE LAW."

And then you have this system where the president can just pardon ANY CROOKED DUDE OUT THERE?! Unbelievable...

[medevilenemy]

There is, unfortunately, an angle you've overlooked... You're right that the executive has never been more powerful, but it isn't strictly an executive power problem. The executive's power is fairly brittle, and can in theory be easily checked by the legislature or the judiciary. This administration has underscored, I think, the real problem: The legislature's checking power is contingent on there being political will, and the constitution contains *no* safeguards against partisanship, so the legislature's checking power is really contingent on the will of the majority party (it's a bit more complex in the case of a split legislature). If the president's party controls either house, we're entirely dependent on that party's legislators being honorable enough to put civic responsibility over party power, and the republican party in the last four years has demonstrated *no* willingness to seriously check Trump's behavior - and indeed they've been rewarded for their faithlessness by the electorate.

What we are seeing is not strictly executive overreach, but rather the cracks in the constitutional order that have never before been so seriously challenged. We are seeing the consequences of a lack of safeguards against partisanship and political safeguards being dependent on political activity (itself subject to partisan corruption).

To put it quite bluntly, the nation is in desperate need of political reforms to break the power of the parties, and to institute a raft of electoral and ethical safeguards, or else the future of the constitutional order is very much in doubt. (We also really need to have a reckoning over originalism, and the broad constitutional illiteracy of the electorate)

[ZeketheZealot]

And then he attempted a literal coup and stole a bunch of military secrets a little bit before hosting a golf tournament for the house of Saud at the same location.

I miss when his biggest controversy was pardoning Roger Stone

[MartijnVos]

I've always been baffled that Ford's pardon of Nixon was legal. How can a president be allowed to pardon a direct coworker or employee, someone who worked directly for him, or a family member? This is such a massive loophole for presidential corruption that it's baffling that it hasn't been closed a long time ago.

[blazenwhiper]

And you know the saddest thing about this?
The majority of Republican voters wont even bat an eye at these pardons.
Yet they'd be the first ones to scream out "treason!" had a democrat done this.

[jodinsan]

*"Qui tacet consentit"*
Silence gives consent. Apparently Republican lawmakers are quite okay with America being run like a monarchy or dictatorship. Tyranny is _perfectly okay_ as long as the tyrant is a fellow Republican.

[ultimatebanana]

I’m ashamed to say your video scared me straight. I’m a moderate living in a far right conservative and many times explicitly racist household. To top it off I’m also the only minority (adopted) in an all white household. And typically I try to watch left or liberal late night shows to keep myself as neutral as possible, listening to both sides of the story. And these past 4 years, 2020 especially, I’ve second guessed myself thinking that maybe I should just fall in line with the echo chamber around me. And even when I’m not second guessing myself about the insurmountable facts in front of me the thoughts are still scratching at the back of my mind. I’m ashamed because it took this video to snap it out of me. I’ve watched your videos all day and I could see you take no side (left or right) offering only impartial looks at justice observing merits and offenses of bot parties in legal proceedings. But to hear you say in an authoritative tone without late night show hosts or tv anchors cracking jokes to ease tension, that Americans should be outraged. I know that this “administration” is just an attempted totalitarian regime that true patriots would see ousted from our land. Edit: I would also add I will be subscribing and turning your notifications on now. Thank you

[matthewgiller]

I have never seen him this angry. That means this is incredibly serious and he believes that this is incredibly corrupt

[nathamiell]

As someone who is barely of voting age, I only started paying attention to politics in 2016. This video is making me realize that I've never actually seen politics at work in a non-corrupt way. I know this is all wrong, but I can't be as mad about it as everyone else is because I don't have any reference to what a non-corrupt system looks like.

[JoelChenFa]

The problem is we keep saying "no one is above the law" when in reality we mean "no one should be above the law". The president is above the law. we pretend he is not, he says he can commit crimes and does. And we pretend somewhere down the line he will face repercussions i.e state laws.

[ClairvoyantTruth]

Kind of terrifying to watch this a year later knowing what will happen in a week. US needs amendment for pardons to not be able to be given post election date or transfer of power happens nearly immediately like most countries.

[asktoybox]

Legal Eagle single handedly destroying the stereotype of lawyers being soulless vampires.

This is why I'm subscribed.

[darleschickens]

The USA is becoming the type of country that the USA warns about.

[mysticloverfairy]

You know it’s bad if he doesn’t start the video with “ Hey, Legal Eagles.”

[madman]

I must say, it stuck me alot seeing a man who is normally extremely composed and neutral express a clear display of displeasure and even rage- it really strikes home how massive an issue this matte is