Last night, on the Rachel Maddow Show, she had a long segment (27 minutes) on presidential pardons and when you can do them and when you can't do them. And like many of her opening segments, there is lots of history, this time with Nixon and Watergate and some fascinating stuff.
Trump sends signal with pardons, could face rude awakening
It is well worth viewing if you missed it last night and gives cause to think about just what Trump can do in the way of the pardon power.
The number of Presidential pardons by President in the 20th Century to present ranked from the most pardons to the least:
Franklin D. Roosevelt: 2,819 pardons
Harry S. Truman: 1,913 pardons
Dwight D. Eisenhower: 1,110 pardons
Woodrow Wilson: 1,087 pardons
Lyndon Johnson: 960 pardons
Richard Nixon: 863 pardons
Calvin Coolidge: 773 pardons
Herbert Hoover: 672 pardons
Theodore Roosevelt: 668 pardons
Jimmy Carter: 534 pardons
John F. Kennedy: 472 pardons
Bill Clinton: 396 pardons
Ronald Reagan: 393 pardons
William H. Taft: 383 pardons
Gerald Ford: 382 pardons
Warren Harding: 300 pardons
William McKinley: 291 pardons
Barack Obama: 212 pardons
George W. Bush: 189 pardons
George H.W. Bush: 74 pardons
There were some notable pardons that did generate negative public comment such as Clinton's pardon of his friend Marc Rich that even some Democrats condemned as abuse of power. Congressman Barney Frank said about that: “It was a real betrayal by Bill Clinton of all who had been strongly supportive of him to do something this unjustified. It was contemptuous.”
But it seems to be necessary to the Trump haters to make a huge deal out of pardons that address injustices done to the parties involved even if they actually did the crimes of which they were convicted. I have no problem really with President Trump commuting Blagojevich's sentence. It would not pardon the crime, but it would allow him to go home to his family where he would present no danger to the public whatsoever.
With all the people out there who are a danger to themselves and/or others and should be locked up, I cannot see how it improves my life in any way to put people in jail who present no danger to themselves and/or others. Martha Stewart is a good example. Did she deserve a very large fine? Yes. Prison? No.