Weissman: Preemptive Pardon Is a ‘Way to Protect the Rule of Law’

EXCERPT:

WEISSMANN: “There are a lot of positive reasons to be doing this kind of protective pardon, so that you actually are upholding the rule of law and you're not subjecting people who obey the rule of law to these kinds of threats, especially when one thing that is completely absent is any — as you said, Jen, any statement of fact about why these people would possibly be prosecuted. Now, there’s nothing which anyone has articulated as to what on God’s green earth Dr. Fauci, a national hero, did, other than save really — you could say millions of lives across the globe. It’s tricky, though, on the issue of what are the categories of people. There you could have it be people who were in government, who have been threatened. You could have people who are explicitly threatened by the president-elect. There are different ways to do that. And just to be clear, final point, just because you might be offered a protective pardon doesn’t mean that you have to accept it. That can be something that's decided on an individual basis. You know, Liz Cheney or Dr. Fauci may have a very different answer than Adam Schiff, for instance, just to take three examples. So I think it’s complicated as to how you do it, but, in general, I am in favor of it in terms of a way to protect the rule of law."