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Wouldn't a pardon only apply to current charges?

• dragonwriter 12y ago
  > Wouldn't a pardon only apply to current charges? A pardon, at maximum (as usually understood, though I don't think the commonly-accepted belief that prospective pardons are invalid has actually been tested), could apply to all federal offenses committed prior to the pardon being issued, whether or not they were now known, or whether "current charges" even existed.
• officemonkey 12y ago
  Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon and Nixon wasn't even charged with a crime.
  • tptacek 12y ago
    Richard Nixon should not have been pardoned!
    • Aloha 12y ago
      Both sides have a good argument. Nixon shouldn't have been pardoned, he should have had to answer for the crimes he committed, but in a way, he did.. he was permanently removed from circles of power, and left in disgrace. I wont really make the argument that what history meted out to him what sufficient just merely that the prosecution would have taken another 5+ years, while in the mean time the nation and government would have been by in large paralyzed, I believe it was healthier in the long run to close the chapter on that phase of history, and move on. Something else I'd note, the laws passed in the wake of watergate were reduced in scope, and allowed to be skirted by a compliant and fearful of terrorism congress, the wiretapping is not the fault of the executive, its a failure of congress to provide anywhere near enough oversight.