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The John Batchelor Show

#POTUS: Pardons and the Bidens. Richard Epstein, Hoover Institution.

The John Batchelor Show

John Batchelor

Society & Culture, Arts, News, Books

4.52.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2024

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

#POTUS: Pardons and the Bidens. Richard Epstein, Hoover Institution.

1832 ANDREW JACKSON

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm John Batts with my colleague Richard Epstein of the Hoover Institution teaches law at NYU and the University of Chicago.

0:06.0

Editorial Wall Street Journal in these last days.

0:09.0

Now that President Biden has granted his son Hunter one of the broadest federal pardons in history,

0:15.0

Democrats are debating whether Mr. Biden should hand out similar pre-emptive clemency like Christmas stocking stuffers,

0:22.6

writes the journal.

0:24.6

If Mr. Biden goes along, it will be another broken democratic norm and another swirl into the lawfare spiral.

0:31.6

There's been talk these last days, Richard, that there'll be more and more pardons as we get closer to the 20th.

0:38.3

And many of the ones that will be most controversial involve other members of the Biden family.

0:44.5

But there is now talk of handing out pardons to people who were involved in the Russia gate, hoax,

0:49.7

once upon a time.

0:52.0

This power is the power of the presidency. How do you measure it? Is this the end of

0:57.8

our understanding of the presidency is fair-minded, or is this going to be a one-off?

1:03.8

Well, nobody quite knows because there's been several officers went out before this. The most

1:09.0

noticeable ones were the pardon of Mark Rich by Bill Clinton

1:13.8

and so forth at the end of his turn. And there are others that have taken place. So that the use

1:19.4

of the pardoned power, in effect, is a terrifying instrument. And it's very important to see the

1:24.0

institutional response that has been given to that by people who are not so

1:28.0

craved that's the current president of the United States.

1:31.4

We have a pardons board.

1:33.1

And what this does is it's supposed to review all the records and to make examinations

1:37.8

and then to send their and transmit their findings to the president for final action.

1:42.5

And the theory is that the power is too great to trust

...

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