4 ms·

There is, however, pardons. He'll probably need to wait about 2-4 terms, but eventually the bribery ... uh ... mercy will go through.

m3kw9 3y ago
so what would the presidents excuse be? “I feel he shouldn’t get 25, and he’s free to go”? Or “his crime wasn’t that bad”? Just wondering
- eadmund 3y ago
  The pardon power is constitutionally absolute and unreviewable — the president can pardon for any reason, or none. Some people dislike that, but I personally like it, because it acts as an ultimate safety valve on the state’s ability to persecute an individual.
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    The question is more "why would the President self-immolate themselves politically for someone who appears to have minimal actual political capital, especially now that they're broke?"
    - toast0 3y ago
      Presidents generally don't suffer much from pardoning the wrong person. There's maybe one President that didn't get elected because of his use of the pardon. But then, Ford wasn't elected President or Vice President before he pardoned Nixon either. Otherwise, I'm not aware of a pardon so controversial that it became a major campaign issue. And for a second term President, there's not really any downside.
      - rocqua 3y ago
        The fact that no one ever lodt an election because of a stupid pardon could equally be explained by no really stupid pardons having happened.
    - gorbachev 3y ago
      But they don't. Because the pattern they usually follow is to pardon the questionable cases (personal friends, people with financial ties to the President, etc.) just before they go out of office.
  - bena 3y ago
    The "state" being the federal government in this case and not any individual state. The president cannot pardon state-level offenses, that is at the discretion of that state.
    - eadmund 3y ago
      Yup! I probably should have capitalised it as ‘State’ to prevent confusion.
  - krapp 3y ago
    And in exchange for this "safety valve" you get the potential for absolute and unreviewable corruption by giving one person the authority to arbitrarily override the judicial branch at will. And to do the same with the legislative branch through executive order. If America mistrusts government so much that it wants the President to be a de facto monarch, it should just drop the pretense at being a republic and have a monarchy already. Or make the oligarchy official and elect a CEO in chief. At least then there's only one head for the CIA to put a bullet into.
  - taco_emoji 3y ago
    Yeah man, everybody knows this. The question is why would any president BOTHER pardoning SBF? It's an idiotic move. Literally no one is defending SBF besides his lawyers
- justinator 3y ago
  There is a more than 0% chance we will re-elect a man that has shown that he does not mind partaking in incredibly corrupt business practices out in the open. We don't even know if they would pardon themselves for crimes and has argued that they should have full immunity to do anything, including harming his adversaries. This person would not need an excuse to do anything.
  - basil-rash 3y ago
    Much more likely the individual for whom he was a top donor than his opponent. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/sam-bankman-fried-biden-donor.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/sam-bankman-fried-bi...
    - ceejayoz 3y ago
      FTX was attempting to buy influence on both sides of the aisle. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-allies-donated-millions-in-dark-money.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-allies... > Ryan Salame, who was the CEO of FTX’s digital markets division, donated millions of dollars to Republican political action committees and affiliated “dark money” groups with funds from FTX’s affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to the documents. Salame pleaded guilty last month to federal campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes. Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda and once dated Bankman-Fried, also gave millions to right-leaning nonprofit groups, the documents say. > Bankman-Fried donated $10 million to a [Mitch] McConnell-linked group named One Nation in August 2022, according to the evidence filed by prosecutors. The money came directly from an Alameda Research account, prosecutors said. There's little reason to believe any of that influence remains now that he's broke.
      - basil-rash 3y ago
        He donated far more to liberals and it’s a well known. Nobody on the right wants to see him walk free.
        3y ago
- notatoad 3y ago
  there doesn't need to be an excuse, and there frequently isn't. "i'm the president and i can do this" is the only excuse necessary
- zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
  They don't need an excuse
- idontpost 3y ago
  [dead]

m3kw9 3y ago

so what would the presidents excuse be? “I feel he shouldn’t get 25, and he’s free to go”? Or “his crime wasn’t that bad”? Just wondering

eadmund 3y ago
The pardon power is constitutionally absolute and unreviewable — the president can pardon for any reason, or none. Some people dislike that, but I personally like it, because it acts as an ultimate safety valve on the state’s ability to persecute an individual.
- ceejayoz 3y ago
  The question is more "why would the President self-immolate themselves politically for someone who appears to have minimal actual political capital, especially now that they're broke?"
  - toast0 3y ago
    Presidents generally don't suffer much from pardoning the wrong person. There's maybe one President that didn't get elected because of his use of the pardon. But then, Ford wasn't elected President or Vice President before he pardoned Nixon either. Otherwise, I'm not aware of a pardon so controversial that it became a major campaign issue. And for a second term President, there's not really any downside.
    - rocqua 3y ago
      The fact that no one ever lodt an election because of a stupid pardon could equally be explained by no really stupid pardons having happened.
  - gorbachev 3y ago
    But they don't. Because the pattern they usually follow is to pardon the questionable cases (personal friends, people with financial ties to the President, etc.) just before they go out of office.
- bena 3y ago
  The "state" being the federal government in this case and not any individual state. The president cannot pardon state-level offenses, that is at the discretion of that state.
  - eadmund 3y ago
    Yup! I probably should have capitalised it as ‘State’ to prevent confusion.
- krapp 3y ago
  And in exchange for this "safety valve" you get the potential for absolute and unreviewable corruption by giving one person the authority to arbitrarily override the judicial branch at will. And to do the same with the legislative branch through executive order. If America mistrusts government so much that it wants the President to be a de facto monarch, it should just drop the pretense at being a republic and have a monarchy already. Or make the oligarchy official and elect a CEO in chief. At least then there's only one head for the CIA to put a bullet into.
- taco_emoji 3y ago
  Yeah man, everybody knows this. The question is why would any president BOTHER pardoning SBF? It's an idiotic move. Literally no one is defending SBF besides his lawyers
justinator 3y ago
There is a more than 0% chance we will re-elect a man that has shown that he does not mind partaking in incredibly corrupt business practices out in the open. We don't even know if they would pardon themselves for crimes and has argued that they should have full immunity to do anything, including harming his adversaries. This person would not need an excuse to do anything.
- basil-rash 3y ago
  Much more likely the individual for whom he was a top donor than his opponent. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/sam-bankman-fried-biden-donor.html https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/02/sam-bankman-fried-bi...
  - ceejayoz 3y ago
    FTX was attempting to buy influence on both sides of the aisle. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-allies-donated-millions-in-dark-money.html https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/20/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-allies... > Ryan Salame, who was the CEO of FTX’s digital markets division, donated millions of dollars to Republican political action committees and affiliated “dark money” groups with funds from FTX’s affiliated hedge fund, Alameda Research, according to the documents. Salame pleaded guilty last month to federal campaign finance and money-transmitting crimes. Caroline Ellison, who ran Alameda and once dated Bankman-Fried, also gave millions to right-leaning nonprofit groups, the documents say. > Bankman-Fried donated $10 million to a [Mitch] McConnell-linked group named One Nation in August 2022, according to the evidence filed by prosecutors. The money came directly from an Alameda Research account, prosecutors said. There's little reason to believe any of that influence remains now that he's broke.
    - basil-rash 3y ago
      He donated far more to liberals and it’s a well known. Nobody on the right wants to see him walk free.
      - 3y ago
notatoad 3y ago
there doesn't need to be an excuse, and there frequently isn't. "i'm the president and i can do this" is the only excuse necessary
zoklet-enjoyer 3y ago
They don't need an excuse
idontpost 3y ago
[dead]