Trump can't pardon himself out of this one.
If the former president is convicted in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis's new criminal case against him, he'll have to serve five years before he can be pardoned.
Willis's case, brought in Georgia, accuses Trump and 18 of his associates of forming an illegal enterprise to keep him in power, breaking numerous laws along the way. Trump was personally charged on 13 different counts. The top charge for racketeering, or RICO, carries a sentence of up to 20 years in prison.
Unlike in his two federal criminal cases, Trump can't expect a Republican president to pardon him before or after he goes to trial. Nor can he rely on a Republican governor in Georgia to pardon him and get rid of the criminal charges.
Georgia is one of five states that doesn't grant pardon power to the governor. Instead, the state's constitution gives pardon power to the state's five-member Board of Paroles and Pardons.
It's a little more than that. Felons in Georgia can apply for a pardon after fully serving their time, paying their fines, and then waiting 5 years without committing additional crimes. There are additional requirements, but those are the big ones.
The RICO charge alone carries a minimum sentence of 5 years. Trump is looking at 5-20 years if convicted.
So really, at best, Trump could be pardoned in 10 years.
I suspect there's a group of MAGAts already scheming on how to change Georgia's pardon process.
Well that's a pretty stupid rule. What good is a pardon after your life is already ruined?
People with past felony convictions have a much harder time finding work and are often denied opportunities such as college admissions and scholarships. The pardon board exists to reward non-recidivism by scrubbing away those past felony convictions.
Speaking as an Atlanta resident, this type of bizzaro policymaking is super on-brand for GA. It's somehow progressive towards the reformed and regressive against the wrongly convicted. One confident step forward and one confused step backward... as usual.
I think most states call that expunged, as in removed from your record after the punishment is served. This is the first time I've heard it called a pardon after the fact. You make some good points though. It's definitely way better to not have a record than to have one.
This way of doing it begins to make more sense when you consider which group of people disproportionately receive wrongful convictions and what the average GA voter tends to think about that particular group of people. It's an anti-black policy dressed up as being just progressive enough so that people don't rally to the polls around it.