As New York state legislators grew worried about how President Donald Trump would use his pardon power, they passed a law that would eliminate what they called the “double jeopardy loophole,” allowing state prosecutors to bring charges against individuals pardoned of federal crimes. It was a bill that previously had been blocked by the Republican-controlled state Senate, but when that chamber flipped,
The current controversy over President Donald Trump’s pardon of his convicted former associates is in a sense older than we think. It is older than President Gerald Ford’s 1974 pardon of Richard Nixon and President George H.W. Bush’s pardon of convicted Iran-Contra figures. The controversy goes back at least as far as Shakespeare, and may have existed at all times and in all places.
Four hundred years ago, Shakespeare dealt with the pardon controversy in his plays and understood all sides of the issue, including the one facing us today.
