Congress already has what it needs to rein in President Donald Trump’s pardon spree with no constitutional amendments required, according to an analysis published Saturday by The Bulwark’s Amanda Carpenter.
Trump said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview that he intends “to issue tremendous numbers of pardons,” floating clemency for anyone who “got within a thousand miles of the Oval Office.” Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress in the midterms and take over in January.
The Constitution grants presidents broad pardon powers, but Carpenter argued that the Founders “would be horrified at a president using them as a tool for open corruption.”
Her blueprint has three parts: legislation that drags pardon deal-making into public view, lawsuits challenging sweeping preemptive pardons and congressional probes aimed at recovering money for crime victims.
On the legislative front, she pointed to Sen. Cory Booker’s (D-NJ) Presidential Pardon Integrity Act, which would hand clemency reviews to a nonpolitical career official, and the No Payoffs for Pardons Act from Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), which would make clear that federal bribery laws cover the president and give prosecutors 10 years to bring pardon-related bribery cases.
As for a near-certain Trump veto, Carpenter offered a simple response: “Well, let’s pass them and find out.” Doing so, she argued, would force Republicans to either defend the president’s pardons or help override him.
Carpenter also highlighted former Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer, whom Trump fired in 2025, who has argued that blanket pardons shielding administration staff would clash with the Constitution’s requirement that presidents faithfully execute the law.
Victims have already paid a steep price. A CBS News investigation found Trump’s clemency orders have wiped out about $119 million in court-ordered restitution. Carpenter noted that civil disgorgement laws remain beyond the reach of a pardon, giving prosecutors a way to claw that money back.
The incoming Congress, she wrote, should end an era of “fixers getting paid, criminals getting clemency, and victims getting stiffed.”
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