Abstract
President Donald J. Trump commuted four prison sentences and pardoned seven offenders in the first half of his first term in office. He often justified his decision to grant mercy as his way to address “unfair” treatment by the federal judicial system. The word “unfair” has been repeated so frequently that one wonders whether it may be a calculated branding decision, much like Trump redefined “fake news” to describe not just untrue stories, but any unfavorable media reports. In this chapter, Jeffrey Crouch considers each of Trump’s clemency decisions and then discuss the “self-pardon” question. He concludes with a look at several clemency reform proposals.
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Crouch, J. (2020). President Donald J. Trump and the Clemency Power: Is Claiming “Unfair” Treatment for Pardon Recipients the New “Fake News”?. In: Lamb, C., Neiheisel, J. (eds) Presidential Leadership and the Trump Presidency. The Evolving American Presidency. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18979-2_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18979-2_4
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