Bill Cotterell: Biden Pardon Reeks of Politics

The Florida Legislature occasionally adopts resolutions expressing its interest in various events — congratulating a Little League champion, mourning the death of a famous dead guy, urging Washington to do this or stop that — which usually takes just a few minutes.

But once, a little more than 50 years ago, our elected legislators spent several hours over many days, wrangling over the wording of one resolution. It urged President Richard Nixon to pardon the late Army Lt. William L. Calley, a Miamian then being court-martialed for the 1968 My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

Pardons, at the federal or state level, can evoke strong feelings, depending more on personal popularity than on the law or justice.

After many days of intermittent argument in the House and Senate, lawmakers in 1971 wound up urging “justice and fairness” for Calley — as if Nixon might act otherwise, without advice from the Florida Legislature.

The same kind of intense partisan reaction has been stirred by President Biden’s horribly misguided — though understandable — decision to pardon his son, after repeatedly assuring the nation he would do no such thing. He was quite right that the charges against Hunter Biden were politically motivated, that Republicans are using Hunter to get at Joe, and that the Department of Justice in the Trump administration will endlessly harass his son if it can find a way.

But with a stroke of his pardon pen, Biden besmirched his place in history by excusing his son for anything he might have done — even things we might not know about now — over the past 11 years. All that stuff Biden said about respecting the judicial system and no one being above the law, well, that must be tempered by a well-grounded awareness that some very vengeful people are coming to town.

For whatever compassion and fairness a pardon brings, it also says some people are special. Lt. Calley got famous and tapped into American emotions about the Vietnam War. Hunter Biden is a very troubled man who appears to be getting his life on track in the glare of round-the-clock publicity.

But both men committed serious crimes, and a pardon says that’s OK. Worse, this pardon says it will be OK if Trump pardons the rioters of Jan. 6, 2021, who beat up cops, vandalized the U.S. Capitol and attacked the government itself. And unless you’re a devout Democratic devotee, it’s impossible to think that Biden just changed his mind on Dec. 1 after all his denials of any pardon plans.

Giving his son a blanket pardon before the Nov. 5 election would have annihilated the slim chance Vice President Harris had at the polls. Doing so after all is lost for Democrats should qualify Biden for a red suit, bushy white beard and eight tiny reindeer.

By comparison, Trump’s pardons of Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and some of his other cronies were just as sleazy. But at least he hadn’t promised, and promised and promised, he wouldn’t grant them.

Shrewdly calculated forgiveness, in the guise of executive compassion, has a long and checkered history dating back to the sale of Papal indulgences more than 600 years ago. Nobody thinks they can buy their relatives out of purgatory any more, but you can still get off the hook in this world with cash and/or connections.

Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon to spare the country at least two or three years of Watergate trials. It may not have cost Ford the White House, but it helped make a big leaguer out of an obscure Georgia ex-governor who went around promising, “I will never lie to you.”

Bill Clinton had a midnight sale on pardons. The most prominent pass went to fugitive financier Marc Rich, who was hiding in Switzerland from 51 counts of tax fraud totaling some $48 million. Rich’s ex-wife made major contributions to the Clinton presidential library and Hillary Clinton’s 2000 campaign for the U.S. Senate.

As if to set an all-in-the-family precedent for Biden, Clinton also erased the conviction of his half-brother Roger, for a drug rap.

So there’s nothing so new about what Biden did for his son. Maybe the Republican Congress will want to look at constitutional amendments that limit the “full, free and absolute pardon” authority of the chief executive. It’s unlikely, though, that either party would want to rein in the favor-granting powers of future presidents.

Maybe we should just put an asterisk on that inscription on the Supreme Court arch so it’ll read “Equal Justice Under Law *unless your case is famous enough or you have friends in very high places.” 

Bill Cotterell is a retired state Capitol reporter for United Press International and the Tallahassee Democrat. He can be reached at wrcott43@aol.com