The Pardoner's Tale
Both Trump and Biden exercised presidential pardons in the worst possible way.
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s sportive satire The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400), one of the most tawdry of the stories told by the 24 pilgrims traveling to Canterbury is that of The Pardoner, a highly loathsome character who sells indulgences (“pardons”) to people seeking forgiveness for their sins.
The Pardoner’s Tale is a religious fable that warns against the sin of avarice, but in reality is intended to exploit the poor and downtrodden, especially gullible mothers with hungry children. As The Pardoner himself openly admits, he is a charlatan who sins without remorse. He is proud of his skill at deceiving the indigent. There were indeed such malefactors in Medieval England. The Canterbury Tales describes quite a few.
Anyway …
The Pardoner’s Tale: The Pardoner tells a story about three “rioters” (i.e. drunks) in a tavern who are bemoaning the passing of a friend. The three want revenge and vow to go out and “kill Death.” (The nonsensical personification of Death is duly noted). During their journey, they encounter a mysterious Old Man who tells them they can find Death underneath an Oak tree up the road. They find the tree, but instead of Death they discover eight glittering bags of gold. There are too many to carry in broad daylight lest they be accused as thieves, so they instruct the youngest to go to town and bring back wine and bread until the safety of sundown.
The youngest rioter departs and acquires the wine and bread, but also visits an apothecary to buy poison to kill the other two and thus keep all the riches to himself. In the meantime, back at the tree, one of the lowlifes turns to the other and divulges a diabolical plan: when their friend returns from town, they will kill him and split greater shares of the wealth.
The young hoodlum returns and the other two ambush and kill him. But in celebrating their new-found riches they both unknowingly drink the poisoned wine and die themselves. Thus concludes The Pardoner’s Tale — beware the sin of avarice, which can only bring treachery and death. An insincere and deceitful warning: Radix malorum est cupitidous. (“Greed is the root of all evil”)
But really, it is a story of hypocrisy and dishonesty perpetrated by The Pardoner.
Biden’s Pardons
Which brings us to the concept of Presidential pardons.
Presidents have used this tool to grant pardons to those who have, fairly or unfairly, been found guilty of past crimes. Some have used it sparingly. President George Bush pardoned 200 people during his eight years in office. Barack Obama used the clemency powers to forgive 1,927 people. In his first term, Donald Trump pardoned 144. (We’ll get to the other 1,583 later).
But Joe Biden was not shy with his presidential authority, pardoning or commuting a whopping 8,064 convicted felons, including his son Hunter, who was convicted of gun and tax evasion. A Republican House Oversight Committee reveals much more serious crimes.
Later, preemptive pardons were granted to former Congresswoman Liz Chaney, Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired Gen. Mark Milley, lawmakers Jamie Raskin and Adam Kinsinger and all House Jan. 6 committee staffers. In a final act of defiance, or as one journalist calls it “in your face,” he preemptively pardoned his entire family as Trump was taking the oath of office.
Call me cynical.
Joe Biden’s Dec. 2020 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper saying he’d never invoke preemptive pardons.
First, let’s be clear. None of the above has been charged with a crime. So the pardons seem moot.
They are anything but.
Accepting a pardon can be seen as a tacit admission of guilt or wrongdoing, thus validating Trump and his supporters. The Supreme Court confirms this. In 1915, in the case Burdick v. the United States, the court ruled that a pardon carries an “imputation of guilt” and that accepting a pardon is an “admission of guilt.”
Chaney, for example, has been cited for witness tampering for contacting star Jan. 6 witness Cassidy Hutchinson, a former White House aide. Milley, who oversaw the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, was seen as responsible for shortcomings in recruiting and retention, the military’s ill-preparedness for combat, and inappropriate interactions with foreign allies.
And Fauci … where to begin? Funding “gain of function” (a euphemism for bioweapons), which he did, lying about the origins of the COVID-19 virus, the virus’ mortality rate, masks, and on and on …
But Biden’s pardoning his family was the final straw. The extraordinary history of the so-called “Biden Crime Family” can be found here.
These pardons “undercut” Biden’s legacy and the Democratic Party’s claim to run on “upholding democratic norms.” So much for “saving democracy.”
Political commentator and Bullwark writer Tim Miller summed it up best, calling the Biden family pardons “fucking grotesque.”
January 6 Pardons
First, the facts.
A total of 1,583 individuals were granted pardons by President Trump on Monday. Those who died during or after the January 6 capital riots, or insurrection if you prefer, include …
Ashli Babbitt: A rioter who was shot and killed by a Capitol Police officer.
Brian Sicknick: A Capitol Police officer who died of a stroke the day after the riot.
Kevin Greeson: Died of a heart condition.
Benjamin Phillips: Died of a stroke.
Rosanne Boyland: Died from an accidental drug overdose.
It is debatable whether Sicknick’s death was a direct result of the conflict. In addition, four law enforcement officers who responded to the attack later died by suicide. More than 140 officers were injured during the riot.
According to the Department of Justice, 608 individuals have been charged or convicted of assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement agents or officers or obstructing those officers during a civil disorder. (Approximately) 172 defendants were charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.1 Most others were convicted of minor offenses such as trespassing and disorderly conduct.
The harshest sentences were given to the leaders of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers, the extremist right-wing groups who were convicted of seditious conspiracy.
Justice or Vengeance
The Justice Department and the House Jan. 6 Committee were determined to portray the riot as an "insurrection," even though it mainly involved spontaneous reactions by Trump supporters who got carried away by their outrage at a supposedly stolen election. The government's narrative — which implied a level of intent and organization belied by the chaotic reality of the day's events — drove prosecutors to overzealously “defend democracy” by doggedly tracking down and prosecuting supporters who had entered the Capitol.
President Trump’s blanket pardon frees all who have been jailed, prosecuted, or pending trial. Some were given harsh sentences beyond “the fullest extent of the law.”
However, such a reconciliation is impossible when the president is willing to excuse political violence as long as it is perpetrated by his supporters. Trump's support for law enforcement and his opposition to violence is hard to swallow in his blanket clemency, which encompasses many defendants who flouted both principles. These were, in a twist of Trumpian irony, “very bad people.” In other words, violent and dangerous.
They include people like Andrew Taake, who pleaded guilty to attacking police officers with bear spray and a "whip-like weapon" … Curtis Tate, who was accused of hitting police officers with a metal baton … and David Dempsey, who was convicted of engaging in "a sustained attack against multiple officers” at the Capitol, using his hands, a flagpole, crutches, pepper spray and broken pieces of furniture.
However, such a reconciliation is impossible when the president is willing to excuse political violence as long as it is perpetrated by his supporters. Trump's support for law enforcement and his opposition to violence is hard to swallow in his blanket clemency, which encompasses many defendants who flouted both principles. These were, in a twist of Trumpian irony,“very bad people.” In other words, violent and dangerous.
This gross misuse of presidential power should offend anyone who believes in the rule of law and respects those who wear the badge. Of the aforementioned 172 offenders, 69 pleaded guilty to assaulting police with a dangerous weapon—everything from bats, knives, and tasers to improvised weapons like stolen riot shields and fire extinguishers. They did this to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Again, some call it a riot. Others call it an insurrection. It doesn’t matter. They broke the law. They hurt people. They hurt the police.
Political violence has no place in America, regardless of whether such lawlessness is carried out by thugs on the left or right. We do not bow to mobs in this country. We do not accept efforts to subvert the democratic process. Americans believe in and are promised public order, ensured by the government, with due process assured to the accused. We air disagreements in democratic debate and abide by the will of the voters.
Unfortunately, we live in an time where too many have lost sight of basic human morality — we see it with those who celebrate Luigi Mangione as a folk hero and those who think taking a hammer to a cop is okay. It’s not.
Those who truly love this country should never accept such excuses.
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Jim Geschke was inducted into the Marquis Who’s Who in 2021.
According to the Department of Justice and the Jan. 6