So, Mr. Law-and-Order – the soon-to-be former president who cheated the students of Trump University – decided it would be a good idea to pardon a thief. How apropos is that?
Chris Collins, the disgraced former congressman, had barely served two months of his 26-month sentence for insider trading when, on Tuesday, President Trump set him free. It was an abuse of power that all Americans – even Trump’s supporters – should be glad to be done with.
Collins, elected to serve the 27th Congressional District, threw it all away in 2017, when he telephoned his son – from the White House grounds, no less – to tip him off that hundreds of thousands of dollars of stock they owned were about to become virtually worthless. Collins had been a former official and top stockholder of Innate Immunotherapeutics, an Australian biotech company whose only product, an experimental multiple sclerosis drug, failed in clinical trials.
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Collins didn’t sell his shares, but his son, Cameron, did. So did the son’s eventual father-in-law and together, they defrauded whatever innocents bought those diseased stocks. They stole from them, and the ringleader was Chris Collins – member of Congress, multimillionaire businessman. He lied about what he had done, even winning reelection based on the lie. With that, he defrauded his constituents, as well.
That was OK with the president who paid $25 million to settle a lawsuit against the Trump University students he had duped. As he is dragged to the White House exit, Trump is demonstrating once again that he is willing to cross any line to feed the voracious appetite of his own ego and political needs.
Presidential pardons and commutations were never meant to be political, but Trump has specialized in that variety, offering get-out-of-jail cards to favored supplicants – bootlickers like Roger Stone and former National Security Adviser Michael T. Flynn as well as favored political figures like Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who shares the president’s animus toward immigrants.
On Tuesday, Trump went wild, shaking loose an avalanche of pardons and commutations on some of his favorite criminals, including former advisers, four Blackwater guards involved in the killings of Iraqi citizens and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress, including Collins. In all, he issued pardons to 15 people and commuted parts or all of the sentences of five others.
And observers think he’s not done yet.
The authority to issue pardons, wielded by presidents and governors, is an awesome power. With the stroke of a pen, it can make moot months-long police investigations, detailed grand jury proceedings and difficult criminal trials. But it is meant, ultimately, to ensure that justice is done. Trump, to no one’s surprise, uses it to ensure that justice is undone.
Rosa Parks and others who fought segregation deserved pardons. Victims of vicious domestic abuse may deserve pardons. Drug dealers who turn their lives around and make a difference to society may deserve pardons.
Wall Street crooks don’t. Liars who threaten our national security don’t.
Ultimately, this is more about Trump than Collins or the other criminals he set free. Trump has been the exception to untold rules of presidential conduct, so it’s no surprise he has abused this authority. And while it’s possible to hope that this kind of misconduct will end with Trump, no Democrat or Republican should be willing to take the chance that some successor will follow his corrupt example. Before another president of either party is given the opportunity to abuse this power, Congress should consider whether it needs to be restrained.
Such a change would require amending the Constitution, an appropriately difficult process. Any revision would have to be carefully evaluated, given the impact and the likelihood of unintended consequences. At a minimum, though, presidents should be prohibited from pardoning their cabinet members and other political allies, high-dollar donors and family members.
And themselves.
The country is being run through a wringer as Trump cracks under the pressure of his loss – his indisputable loss – in last month’s election. It’s like a nasty divorce: The only way to get past is to go through it, gritting your teeth and applying as much restraint as possible to the offending party. Less than four weeks remain before the country has a better president.
As to Collins, it’s time to man up. He should take this opportunity to offer an honest and humble apology to his former constituents, his former colleagues in government and the unidentified individuals he scammed with worthless stocks. At Christmastime, he might find forgiveness.
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