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President Trump’s pardon of Black is not the first time a president has pardoned a friend or a business associate. Nor will it be the last. The president has a constitutionally vested power to pardon that requires no justification or explanation. When we elect a president and he or she vows to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution, we expect them to honour this vow and make decisions that are in the best interests of the country. We also expect presidents to consult with the Department of Justice, which has been tasked with the responsibility of assisting the president in the constitutional exercise of his or her pardon power for over 150 years. This precedent and the constitutional protections built into the pardon process have been tossed to the wind under this administration. Even concerns over the political ramifications of an “unseemly” pardon that have shamed many presidents into waiting until their final days in office to issue such pardons have evaporated.

Nothing betrays the mockery that President Trump has made of our justice system more than the fact the Black’s co-defendants, Richard Boultbee and Peter Atkinson, Canadians who were convicted by the same jury, at the same trial, of the same fraud crimes as Black, did not receive any pardon consideration from President Trump. They remain convicted federal criminals with no pop singers or right-wing pundits to vouch for them. (Of course, Boultbee and Atkinson were not convicted of obstruction of justice like Black, a badge of honour to the current administration.)