Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) detailed the need for new legislation he has introduced regarding presidential pardons, stressing that “guardrails” need to be placed on these going forward.
Blumenthal introduced the Pardon Transparency and Accountability Act after President Donald Trump issued pardons to defendants of the Jan. 6 Capitol protest, as well as former President Joe Biden commuting the sentence of Adrian Peeler, who was convicted in the killing of a Connecticut mother and her 8-year-old boy. Blumenthal, who was the state’s attorney general at the time of Peeler’s conviction, said he had “no explanation” why this commutation was issued by Biden, stressing the need for his legislation.
“Nobody knows why that decision on Adrian Peeler was made, and many of these pardon decisions really cry out for more accountability and transparency,” Blumenthal said on Fox News Sunday with Shannon Bream. “That’s why I have introduced a bill, it’s called the Pardon Transparency and Accountability Act that would establish some guardrails and require a justice impact statement. Notification of the victims and to the prosecutor so they can express their opinion, an explanation required of the president, disclosure of any lobbying that has occurred in connection with that pardon decision.”
Blumenthal contended that “mistakes” have been made by presidents on both sides of the political aisle, adding that Trump’s pardons to the Jan. 6 defendants were “equally, if not more, appalling” in his view.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also said on Sunday that Trump’s pardons to Jan. 6 defendants were “a mistake.”
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Trump, however, has stood by his pardons, which were issued on Day One of his second term in the White House. The president cited how the defendants “already served years in prison.”
The topic of presidential pardons has gained renewed scrutiny after Biden issued multiple preemptive pardons to members of his family, including granting a lengthy pardon to his son, Hunter Biden. Trump knocked Biden’s preemptive pardons to members of the House Jan. 6 investigatory committee, saying “they burned and destroyed all documents which showed that they did what was wrong.”
