US pardons – are they quid pro quo?
The continuing emphasis on the US Trump administration is in some ways a stand in for corruption concerns in various areas of government. In this instance, a legal analyst writing an opinion piece in The New York Times reminds us of the problems of pardons within government. Recently Mr. Trump, using his pardon powers, has pardoned a notorious drug kingpin, the previous Honduran president, Mr. Juan Orlando Hernández. In the US pardons have had little to no oversight, and up until this administration, the pardons given were pretty open, somewhat political in some case, while personal in others, but as noted in this piece, the most recent set of pardons. Historically, there have been questions and even some congressional review but “[n]otably, the focus of these previous congressional investigations was not whether the presidents had the right to grant the pardons — that was undisputed — but whether the pardons were part of a deal or a quid pro quo.” This is as noted, the real question and the lack of transparency in all the pardons that Mr. Trump has issued, highlights the concerns that exist.
Why should we care and what should be done. In this instance, we should care as opaque pardons can lead to very clear questions as to the reasoning behind them , such as conflicts of interests or even clear quid pro quo. This is not an unreasonable concern and reminds us that such actions do need oversight. Mr. Trump recently has provided his perspective on pardons. He had pardoned Mr. and Mrs. Cuellar, a Texas official and his wife, had been found guilty of fraud and his children had written to President Trump, implying that their parents had been caught up in Biden “lawfare”, and so President Trump agreed to the pardon. In the New York magazine they noted that the official would go back to Texas and run in the next election as a Democrat. This surprised Mr. Trump, and he made a posting on his site, Truth Social, where he made very clear that he had expected Mr. Cuellar to be loyal and not run in the midterms, and made it very clear that Mr. Trump’s expectations had not been met. It would be good to have more information as to the intention behind a pardon, and certainly this should be legalized. We are no longer in the area where we don’t know Mr. Trump’s thinking, we do and as such this should be a concern to all lawmakers. Additionally, this should continue to be emphasized on the part of the media and legal CSOs, and to help legislators move forward, knowing that they will need to reform this as well as many other areas touching on governmental corruption. The only good news is that this helps sharpen legislative focus and good for lessons learned internationally.
Links:
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/07/opinion/trump-pardons-investigations.html
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trump-fumes-at-pardoned-democrat-for-lack-of-corruption.html