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Hey folks, Rachel here. Here's a recording of my latest cafe note, Pardon's Without Process.

As always, please write to us with your thoughts and questions at Letters atcafe.com.

Dear listener, as a scholar who has written a great deal about clemency and the president's pardon power over the past two decades,

I can say with some authority that this month is the worst ever when it comes to the exercise of that power.

It's not just the fact that so many grants were troublesome on the merits, as Preet and Joyce and so many others have detailed.

It's also the blatant disregard by not one but two presidents for a fair process

and for the people who played by the rules in seeking clemency relief.

Throw in the fact that much of the public now seems to take for granted that this is acceptable,

and you have the most miserable month for mercy.

It's not new for presidents to pardon friends, family, donors, or political allies

who are not vetted through a regularized process designed to give everyone a fair shot without favoritism.

For example, in his last days in office, Bill Clinton pardoned his brother, Roger, and Mark Rich, often referred to as the fugitive financier because he fled the country after being charged with evading $48 million in taxes and engaging in multiple counts of tax fraud.

Rich's ex-wife had donated more than a million dollars to Democrats and to the fund

for the Clinton Presidential Library. Clinton was roundly criticized for doing so by Democrats and

Republicans alike. In the wake of the Clinton pardon scandal, subsequent presidents took care

not to be seen as similarly compromised and partial in their clemency decisions.

George W. Bush even revoked a pardon one day after giving it after he learned the recipient's

...