What can we learn from the people Trump has pardoned so far?

The presidential pardon has never been a particularly fair or impartial instrument of government – it’s effectively circumventing the judicial system at the whim of whoever is in office. Democratic and Republican presidents have offered pardons to those on their side of key issues, and in some cases (Bill Clinton’s pardon of former Democratic congressman Mel Reynolds on federal fraud charges, for example) pardons have been given to political allies with little wider moral justification.

Some presidents, including George W Bush and Barack Obama, have relied more on the pardon attorney’s office to recommend who to grant clemency to and have been less personally involved, although the pardons given still tend to reflect the sitting president’s wider politics.

On Wednesday, Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Johnson, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who has spent over 20 years in prison for non-violent drug crimes. It’s the sort of pardon decision previous presidents might well have made, but his likely reason for doing so was uniquely Trumpian. He was lobbied last week by the reality star Kim Kardashian to release Johnson.

Trump has pardoned slightly fewer people than most recent presidents at this stage of a presidency, but there is a theme to those he has deemed worthy of clemency. Most were considered by Trump as being unfairly persecuted by the “deep state”. They have been found, by FBI and DoJ investigations, to have obstructed justice, given false statements to investigators, or broken campaign finance rules.

Many have suggested that Trump is using his pardons as a tool in the Mueller investigation. One of his greatest political threats is that Michael Cohen and Paul Manafort will cooperate with the FBI to minimise their legal vulnerability. Trump’s pardons could signal to those considering working with the Mueller investigation that if they remain loyal he’ll reward them down the line. Even this latest pardon – which, according to the Washington Post, has disturbed many of Trump’s advisers – demonstrates Trump’s willingness to use pardons for any cause, without wider consultation.

As well as the late boxer Jack Johnson, Trump has pardoned four living people, commuted two sentences and has raised the possibility of pardoning two more. Here’s who’s on his list:

Alice Johnson

Alice Marie Johnson, left, and her daughter Katina Marie Scales wait to start a TV interview on Thursday, June 7, 2018. Photograph: Adrian Sainz/AP

The crime Drug trafficking.
The punishment Life imprisonment.
Trump response Sentence commuted.

Johnson was involved in a Memphis-based drug trafficking operation in the mid-90s. She claims she never sold drugs herself, or set up deals, but relayed coded messages over the phone. She has been serving life in prison. It was her first offence.

Kim Kardashian went to the White House last week to persuade Trump to release her. She also agreed to pose for photos with the president. Many in the White House are reportedly dismayed that a pardon was made in this manner, particularly one that flies in the face of the general government policy on drug offenders, which has been to maintain punitive sentences.

Dinesh D’Souza

Dinesh D’Souza. Trump said he was treated ‘very unfairly’. Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

The crime He pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014 by making illegal contributions to a United States Senate campaign in the names of others.
The punishment Five years of probation, eight months of which he served in a community confinement center in California.
Trump response Pardoned.

D’Souza briefly served as an adviser in the Reagan administration and worked for a number of conservative thinktanks. After Obama’s election, he became better known as a documentarian whose films made Trump-like attacks on liberals and gleeful promotion of conspiracy theories. His 2012 documentary about Obama was widely criticised for, as Entertainment Weekly put it, “giving intellectual cover to the worst in subterranean conspiracy theories and false, partisan attacks”. It is the fifth best-performing documentary at the American box office ever.

D’Souza was convicted, fined, and served eight months in a community probation facility. Trump pardoned him last week saying he was “treated very unfairly” by the government.

Martha Stewart

Stewart adjusts Trump’s tie during a photoshoot for The Apprentice. Photograph: Reuters

The crime Obstruction of justice, making false statements and conspiracy for lying to investigators during an investigation into inside trading.
The punishment Stewart served five months in prison.
Trump response Considering a pardon.

Stewart is one of two former Apprentice contestants that Trump said last week that he is considering for a pardon. Previously Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has used Stewart as an example of why Trump shouldn’t testify in the Mueller investigation. “Martha Stewart never would have gone to jail if she hadn’t lied during her testimony,” he told CNN.

Rod Blagojevich

The crime Corruption charges relating to his attempt to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he became president.
The punishment Currently serving a 14-year sentence.
Trump response Considering commuting the sentence.

Blagojevich, a Democrat and former governor of Illinois, was involved in one of the strangest cases of political corruption in US history. He was found guilty of seeking financial benefit for the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama, essentially auctioning it off to the highest bidder (in Illinois, Senate vacancies are filled by gubernatorial appointment).

Trump told reporters last week: “Rod Blagojevich … eighteen [sic] years in jail for being stupid and saying things that every other politician, you know that many other politicians say.”

Last month Blagojevich wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal which many believe was written to appeal to Trump’s sense of persecution. He wrote: “Some in the DoJ and FBI are abusing their power to criminalize the routine practices of politics and government.”

On Tursday, Blagojevich directly asked Trump to pardon him and filed an official application for clemency.

Sholom Rubashkin

The crime Eighty-six counts of federal bank fraud, mostly related to a complex scheme of loans created to pay illegal labour off the books.
The punishment A 27-year prison sentence.
Trump response Sentence commuted.

Rubashkin was once the executive of America’s largest kosher meatpacking business, but after immigration raids in 2008, federal prosecutors charged him with financial fraud. He was convicted on 86 counts, but many felt his 27-year sentence was too severe, especially when considering Enron’s Jeff Skilling received a shorter sentence.

This was one of Trump’s more traditional pardons. He decided to commute Rubashkin’s sentence after a bipartisan group of more than 100 former law enforcement and justice department officials, including former attorneys general.

Joe Arpaio

Joe Arpaio, ‘America’s toughest sheriff’. Photograph: Ross D Franklin/AP

The crime Failing to follow a court order to stop profiling Latinos.
The punishment Up to six months in prison.
Trump response Pardoned before sentencing.

Joe Arpaio claimed to be “America’s toughest sheriff” and boasted that he would confine inmates in such unbearable conditions that they amounted to a “concentration camp”. His racial profiling of Latinos led to a court order banning him from targeting Latino drivers. Arpaio ignored the order and was found to have committed civil contempt. He could have served prison time but Trump pardoned Arpaio before he could be sentenced.

Arpaio has been extremely loyal to Trump, with whom he shares almost identical political views. He has previously arrested journalists for writing negative stories about him, and claimed that Barack Obama was born in Kenya. When Trump suggested pardoning Arpaio at rallies it prompted huge cheers from the crowd.

Kristian Saucier

The crime Retaining photographs he had taken of classified areas inside a nuclear submarine.
The punishment Twelve months in prison.
Trump response Pardoned.

Kristian Saucier was a navy sailor who took photos – he claims as personal mementoes – of a nuclear submarine, using his personal phone. Trump became obsessed with Saucier’s case because he said it demonstrated legal hypocrisy relating to Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. He argued at rallies and on Twitter that Saucier had faced jail for storing classified data on his phone but Clinton had not.

Somewhat undermining his own argument, he pardoned Saucier for his crime, from which one might assume he doesn’t think Clinton should be charged either. However confusing the logic, Saucier is returning the favour and this week announced he plans to sue Obama and James Comey, saying he was subject to unequal protection under the law.

Scooter Libby

The crime Felony counts of perjury, lying to the FBI, and obstruction of justice.
The punishment Thirty-month prison sentence, commuted by George W Bush.
Trump’s response Full pardon.

Libby was Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff and top national security adviser between 2001 and 2005. He was found guilty of lying to the FBI in an investigation into the leaking of information about the undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame.

Libby’s sentence had already been commuted by Bush and Trump’s pardon made little practical difference. But the symbolism of pardoning Libby was considerable – it was James Comey, then deputy attorney general, who chose the special prosecutor who would bring action against Libby.

Adam Schiff, a Democratic congressman and persistent Trump critic, was quick to draw the parallels. “On the day the president wrongly attacks Comey for being a ‘leaker and liar’ he considers pardoning a convicted leaker and liar, Scooter Libby. This is the president’s way of sending a message to those implicated in the Russia investigation: you have my back and I’ll have yours,” he tweeted.