First, let me say that I think your comment is fantastic. Not that many people have the capacity to think through military justice issues in all their nuance. N

First, let me say that I think your comment is fantastic. Not that many people have the capacity to think through military justice issues in all their nuance. New convening authorities often have a more tenuous grasp of the interplay between courts-martial and discharge characterizations than you just demonstrated. There's potentially some question as to whether the President has the power to pardon the conviction and impose an OTH, because an OTH implicates a liberty interest and requires a hearing unless waived. See, e.g., Vierrether v. United States, 27 Fed. Cl. 357, 364 (1992), aff'd without op., 6 F.3d 786 (Fed. Cir. 1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1030 (1994). However, I'd be hard pressed to find any objection to unilaterally imposing an administrative discharge with a General (Under Honorable Conditions) characterization. Alternatively, there is nothing preventing the President from making the pardon conditional.