DAILY BEAST
With Donald Trump’s penchant for doling out so many presidential pardons to his uniquely troublesome circle of friends on his way out of the White House, it was only a matter of time until those presidential pals tested the value of their Get Out of Jail Free cards.
A case in Washington, D.C., is now highlighting the consequences of Trump’s messy pardons—and calling into question whether mercy handed out as a political favor has a limited shelf life.
“It’s not an exoneration exactly. It’s not like wiping a crime off the books entirely. It’s very valuable—as long as you don’t get in trouble again,” said David Levine, a professor at the University of California College of the Law San Francisco.
On Monday, a federal appellate court in the nation’s capital heard from Jesse Benton, a GOP political operative who is in knots over the fact that a jury heard about his previous election crimes—before convicting him of brand new ones.
The problem, as his attorneys see it, is that Trump’s pardon in 2020 should have made his first scheme essentially vanish. Instead, it revealed him to be what he is: a man who keeps getting caught playing dirty politics…
