Introduction: On Nov. 5, Former President Donald Trump was re-elected to his former office to become the 47th president of the United States and the second president to serve two non-consecutive terms. He is also the first Republican presidential candidate to win the national popular vote in 20 years.

Throughout the campaign that resulted in his political resurrection, Trump faced heavy scrutiny for his mounting legal troubles, including nearly 100 criminal charges across two states and two federal cases, as well as a variety of civil lawsuits. As of press time, a federal case in the state of Florida concerning his alleged mishandling of classified documents was dismissed by a judge he appointed during his first term, pending appeal. Additionally, he was convicted of 34 counts of felony falsification of business records in the state of New York. A federal case in Washington, D.C., and a state case in Georgia remain active. Now, President-elect Trump’s legal fate rests in the hands of a variety of judges, prosecutors and governors, as well as, in part, President Biden.

In this edition, Gaughan will argue that the President-elect should be pardoned of all charges, while Granahan will argue for their persistence. Granahan argues his personal view, while Gaughan does not report a personal opinion.

For (Gaughan):

Throughout the 2024 Presidential campaign, President Biden — the presumptive Democratic nominee until his July withdrawal — and Vice President Harris, the party’s official candidate, attempted to lean into the Former President’s troubles with the law. In fact, a notable portion of the Democrat-aligned coalition this election, particularly anti-Trump Republicans, endorsed the vice president in part due to their disapproval of the Former President’s crimes. A quintessential metric by which international non-governmental organizations and comparative political analysts judge the well-being of a free state is its adherence to the rule of law. And yet, all of this plainly on the table before them, the Former President’s likely incarceration hanging in the balance, the American electorate made itself clear.

Donald Trump will be the next president of the United States, criminal or not, incarcerated or not. His fate has been decided, no matter the consequences. When voters went to the polls, they either knew that selecting a candidate with an extensive criminal background would weaken the role of the law as a guardrail of American politics or were willfully ignorant. The law is clear. Americans have decreed that it ought not matter.

This issue is not one with which I engage with the passion of previous editions, nor does it demonstrate differences between strong opposing visions for our country. But it is one of great importance with which American legal, judicial and political leadership must now confront. I have read the charges against the president-elect, and heard the arguments for both his innocence and guilt. I am without doubt that he is guilty as charged, and without question that justice demands his adequate punishment. But right now, America demands the opposite. Former President Trump has been decisively reelected. American leaders must honor the will of their constituents. It is necessary for the health of a state that its leaders not be immune from prosecution for criminal acts, but it must be the people of the state alone who decide its future. They have voted not only for Former President Trump but for his acquittal.

When the former president is reinaugurated to the position he held from 2017 to 2021, he will stand on the indisputable mandate of American democracy. Whereas opponents once pointed to his popular vote loss in 2016 to undermine the strength of his mandate, they can hardly do so this time around. Now, with the demands of the presidency, and the position’s vital role in the law and politics of the United States, America cannot afford to have him shuttling in and out of courtrooms, and forced to decide between his freedom and the integrity of his office, from which he can interfere in both realms.

When Trump left office, he did so against the backdrop of an insurrection he had incited to attack the U.S. Capitol and prevent the certification of his loss. If he violently rejected the will of the voters in 2021 when the only thing at stake was his power, one must imagine how he might react in 2029 when his freedom is also on the line.

In terms of the federal charges, it is worth mentioning that Department of Justice policy has prohibited the prosecution of a sitting president for more than half a century, and that Special Counsel Jack Smith, tasked with handling the federal cases, is likely to wind down his cases. In terms of the Georgia state case, it will have to wait until after Trump’s presidency if it is to proceed. With respect to the New York charges, they lie squarely at the doorstep of Judge Juan Merchan. But for America to heal, and to allow the rule of law to save face, Former President Trump should be pardoned. In Georgia, such an act will likely strengthen the political standing of Republican Governor Brian Kemp. In New York, it could act as a death knell for the political career of Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul. And for the federal charges, it will perpetually stain the legacy of President Joe Biden within his party. But it is also the best that can be done for supporters of the charges.

After President Gerald Ford pardoned his scandal-plagued predecessor, President Richard Nixon, he reportedly carried an excerpt from the 1915 Supreme Court case Burdick v. United States in his wallet as justification. The excerpt stated, and the case held, that a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it.” Here the same applies. Pardoning President-elect Trump will remove barriers to his suspect ability to carry out the duties of his office without ulterior, self-preserving motives, while still enshrining his acknowledgment of guilt in the history books. It is the right way forward.

Against (Granahan):

No person in the United States is above the law. That includes the president. It is one of the greatest hallmarks of the American republic that every citizen, from the least fortunate worker to the highest-ranking political figure, is, at least on paper, accountable for following the same laws. It was one of the greatest legal and moral failures of the United States government in recent history when the Supreme Court determined in July 2024 that the president’s official acts are exempt from the otherwise ubiquitous rule of law. Nevertheless, even the opinion in this decision explicitly reiterates that “the President is not above the law.” To pardon President-elect Donald Trump of his crimes solely on the basis that he will soon enter the Oval Office would be to confirm that the president is fully and unmistakably above the law.

The last time a U.S. president was pardoned with the intention of uniting and moving on, it arguably did far more to anger and inflame. When President Gerald Ford issued a pardon to Richard Nixon for his involvement in the Watergate scandal a resounding majority of Americans disapproved of the decision. After years of being lied to and manipulated by their government officials, the American people wanted to see Former President Nixon face justice for the crimes he had committed. They were unable to see their president have his day in court, and what followed was a cataclysmic wave of anti-establishment fervor that almost certainly cost President Ford reelection in 1976. It accomplished virtually nothing besides stripping America of closure.

In some respects, the crimes with which President-elect Trump has been charged are far worse than those for which President Nixon was sure to be charged had he not received a pardon. Though ties between Nixon and the initial Watergate complex break-in have been alleged, the famous “Smoking Gun” White House tapes only implicated Nixon in attempting to cover up the ensuing scandal. For what it is worth, Trump has been adjudicated guilty of a cover-up of his own; that is, falsifying business records in order to conceal an alleged extramarital affair with Stormy Daniels. And this is perhaps the most tame of the crimes he has been charged with. Although his trial for mishandling classified documents has been dismissed, he is still set to be tried for his attempts to reverse the results of the 2020 election using fraudulent electors. Even if one were to disregard his incitement of the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol on the grounds that he did not participate in the violence, Trump’s decision to knowingly solicit fake electors demonstrated a blatant disregard for the laws of the United States.

The choice of whether or not to pardon President-elect Trump comes down to a question of whether or not he and his supporters will genuinely acknowledge the rule of law. President Ford’s decision to pardon President Nixon, while flawed, was at least grounded in the knowledge that Nixon’s tacit acknowledgment of guilt under the Burdick precedent would remove the former president as a political force from America. Trump, however, is a man who has demonstrated that he lacks humility and thrives on controversy. If Trump were to be pardoned under a similar rationale to that which led to the Nixon pardon, it would be unlikely to solicit any indication of guilt, nor would it change Trump’s perception by his most fanatical supporters.

When President Nixon’s own Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was charged with tax evasion in 1973, he did not receive a pardon from the president. In light of his son Hunter’s 2024 conviction on gun charges, President Joe Biden will almost certainly not issue a pardon for his son (nor should he). And while the story may be apocryphal, the incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was not exempt from arrest when he was reportedly pulled over twice by the same police officer for speeding on a horse and buggy. That’s because there is not one person, even the president, who is above the law in the United States of America. That includes Donald J. Trump.