2 ms·
The president can only pardon for federal crimes. I imagine if/when people are tired of federal pardons, that many things will become both state crimes and fede
by toast0 2y ago
The president can only pardon for federal crimes. I imagine if/when people are tired of federal pardons, that many things will become both state crimes and federal crimes, where that's possible.
Some crimes clearly fit only under the federal umbrella, but some are meerly not currently addressed by state law because federal law was seen as sufficient. There's a recent supreme court decision that says trying someone for the same conduct in state and federal courts is fine [1], so it just becomes a question of if the federally pardoned conduct also violates a state law of a state that's relevant.
In this case, where the victims are numerous, if SBF were pardoned, the question would be do any of the 50 states have a fraud law that was violated. Or indeed, if any other countries do and if they can get an extradition arranged. I don't know if a federal pardon would prevent US cooperation in extradition?
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamble_v._United_States https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamble_v._United_States