Worse Than a Pardon

There was an easy way for President Donald Trump to make the case against Michael Flynn go away.

The Constitution gives the president “Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States,” and Trump hasn’t been shy about using the power in flamboyant ways. The man who pardoned Joe Arpaio while the criminal case against the former Maricopa County, Arizona, sheriff was still pending clearly has no compunction about cutting a case short using that power. The man who has dangled the possibility of pardons in cases arising out of the Russia investigation, including Flynn’s, doesn’t have scruples either about using it in matters that involve him directly. And Trump has made clear on numerous occasions that, at least in his view, Flynn deserves clemency; he has described him repeatedly as a good man destroyed by an investigation