If the goal was real justice, why is this left to the 11th hour storm of bullshit pardons? Isn't this being used as an obvious distraction when it could have happened much sooner?
The President is the head of the executive branch. The Department of Justice, on top of which the President ultimately sits, was responsible for prosecuting ~each and ~every one of the people the President pardons, on their first or last day. Someone inside the DoJ thought each and every one of them was guilty of a crime and deserved to be prosecuted for it. Weeks and months -- years, the work of dozens -- went into each and every one of those prosecutions. The convictions, when obtained, were hung like trophies on the walls of the individual careers. Proof they had done their job, proof their work had meaning.
And then the President, with the stroke of a pen, throws it all away.
We all have projects get canceled. We all have invested time and effort and then, through no fault of our own, had our efforts come to naught.
It's bad for morale. Even when the reasons for the laws were outdated or absurd, even when the prosecutions unjust, even when perfidy played a role, even when the people who worked the case no longer fully believe in it ... it still hurts to have your work thrown away by your superior. It still damages the working relationship you have with your chain of command. Why should you work hard in the future, doing the tasks assigned to you, if your boss is just going to ignore it all?
The President pardoning dozens, hundreds, thousands of individuals permanently damages their working relationship with the career employees of the Department of Justice, even (especially?) if the pardons are moral, deserved, merciful, just without a hint of corruption. Maybe that shouldn't defer justice, but it's a reason.
One theory: they're not in office anymore, so they won't as easily be bothered because [person pardoned] committed a crime, which of course they'll be chased like a hawk for doing, just in case, especially in the case of certain pardoned people.
edit: removed some inflammatory text that was unfair to all involved.
