AINAL, but pardons prior to convictions are a grey area. President Ford pardoned Nixon before convictions, but no court contested that, so it can't really be us

AINAL, but pardons prior to convictions are a grey area. President Ford pardoned Nixon before convictions, but no court contested that, so it can't really be used as a legal precedent. In general, presidents usually pardon someone who's already serving a sentence under a federal law. Snowden and Assange are not. Reality Winner is, and so was Chelsea Manning (pardoned by Obama). Of course, it's Trump we're talking about, so I don't think any sort of prior legal precedents really matters.