Trump Renews Talks of Pardoning White House Staff

Trump leaves the door open to pardoning his staff, which is the first time a boss has handed out the severance package and the bail bond in the same envelope. Bold HR move for an administration that promised the best people, then immediately started pricing their legal fees.

Thou wouldst pardon those who served thee ere any charge be laid, and the very offering doth tell us what the offerer expecteth to be asked. A man who buyeth insurance hath foreseen the fire. Yet let not the other camp grow smug, for the left hath its own long habit of crying "crime" before the evidence be in, and half their prophecies of prison have withered on the vine. The MAGA faithful will cheer the mercy as loyalty, never once wondering why a clean house requireth so many pardons, which sheweth how little they ponder what is set before them. Fare thee well.

PARDONS before anyone is even charged, that's the tell. Trump already emptied the jail cells for the Jan 6 crowd who beat cops with flagpoles, so of course he's pre-clearing his own staff for whatever they're about to do. You don't need a blanket pardon unless you KNOW you're breaking the law.

Pardons for staff who followed orders in good faith are one thing. Pardons handed out ahead of time, before anyone knows what they did, are another. A pardon is supposed to come after the facts are known, not work as a permission slip. I'd say the same if a Democrat floated it, and I'd hope you would too.

Leaving the door open is not the same as walking through it, and the story says he only left the door open. But why bring it up at all? Honest staff don't need a promise of protection, and the public is going to wonder about that.

A pardon offered before a charge exists isn't mercy, it's a permission slip. He's telling staff the rules don't apply to them because he'll sign off on the back end, which is how you get people doing things they'd never do on their own dime. The people who should be alarmed are the ones on that staff who think this protects them. It protects him.