Corrupt parliamentarians, former mercenaries guilty of murdering civilians in Iraq and presidential advisers convicted of perjury or obstruction of justice as part of the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 election campaign. About 50 people in total, all pardoned by outgoing President Donald Trump since November 3.
Second common point, none of them was part of the 14,282 files submitted to the White House by the office of presidential pardons, which depends on the Ministry of Justice.
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The right of pardon, the ultimate power of Donald Trump
This is the absolute power conferred by the Constitution of 1787 on the Head of State.
Donald Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, had granted more than 1,700 commutations of sentence and 212 pardons in due form.
These were mainly delinquents linked to drug trafficking.
With regard to Donald Trump, this discretionary power takes on a much more political dimension.
And personal.
“Most of the presidential clemency was attributed to friends and political allies who had never strictly requested the pardons office,”
notes Michael Schillman of the Center for Investigative Reporting.
And they aim to consolidate the posture of the future ex-president, who expects an avalanche of legal proceedings after the handover on January 20.
Among those pardoned, Paul Manafort, Trump's short-lived campaign manager in 2016, was serving a seven-and-a-half-year prison sentence for various frauds.
Roger Stone, Trump's wet mentor in the disclosure of Hillary Clinton's campaign emails by WikiLeaks and the Russian Secret Service, had his two-year sentence commuted at first.
Michael Flynn, ex-national security adviser, and George Papadopoulos, ex-foreign policy adviser, were also involved in the secret negotiations with Russia.
"An orgy of impunity"
Even the four mercenaries of the Blackwater firm, guilty of murdering 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007 and sentenced to very heavy prison terms, have an indirect link with the president.
Blackwater founder Erik Prince is a staunch supporter of the president.
His sister Betsy DeVos is Secretary of Education.
In 2010, Vice President Joe Biden, visiting Baghdad, promised justice to the families of Iraqi victims, the four suspects being immediately renamed the "Biden Four" by the conservative Fox News channel.
The same goes for the father of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner, Charles Kushner, convicted of tax evasion, witness tampering and perjury.
"The president's pardons correspond to what one might have expected from a middle-class godfather,"
comments former federal judge Andrew Weissmann, who was Bob Mueller's deputy in the Russian investigation.
"Neither the predictability of these pardons nor our dull reflexes to indignant us suffice to lessen their grotesque character,"
writes Michelle Goldberg in a
New York Times
column
.
The last days of Trump's reign have been an orgy of impunity, as he distributes his indulgences like so many partisan favors and tramples on America's image to put his supporters outside the reach of the law. "
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Can Donald Trump pardon himself?
"
The system of pardons is distorted, and it must be restored
," suggests Mark Osler, professor of law at St. Thomas University in Minnesota, who points to the appalling iniquity of leniency, often pronounced against bad people.
We need a committee that would be responsible for analyzing all cases and making recommendations in direct contact with the president. ”
The possible overhaul of the pardons office does not however concern the almost unlimited prerogatives of the president.
Donald Trump would have, it is whispered, pushed the reflection to consider his own forgiveness, which lawyers contemplate however with caution.
He would also like to protect his children Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric against any subsequent legal setback.
He could finally resign the day before his departure, propelling Vice President Mike Pence to the throne for just twenty-four hours.
Time for him to formally and preventively pardon the New York tycoon.
The scenario is not entirely new: in 1974, Vice-President Gerald Ford forgave Richard Nixon after his resignation.
Ford's presidential ambitions did not survive.
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