“We should preserve regulation and order on the highest stage, or we’ll stop to have a rustic, 100%,” mentioned Donald Trump, then a candidate for president, at a 2016 rally in Virginia Seaside. “We are going to stop to have a rustic. I’m the regulation and order candidate.”
It is a theme that might proceed for practically a decade, as much as the current day. “We’ve got to get regulation and order again,” he mentioned in April 2024, throughout his third marketing campaign for the presidency. “We’ve got to carry regulation and order again to our cities, again to our nation, and we’re doing it,” he instructed a crowd in August of that very same 12 months. “However after I get again into the Oval Workplace,” he mentioned the next month, “the insanity ends, and the regulation and order goes to return to our nation.”
If the complete, unconditional pardon now-President Trump just lately gave to disgraced ex-Sheriff Scott Jenkins is any indication, then the insanity sadly has not ended.
Jenkins, previously of the Culpeper County Sheriff’s Workplace, was convicted final 12 months of accepting over $75,000 in money bribes from a number of businessmen in trade for Jenkins appointing them as auxiliary deputy sheriffs, a sworn regulation enforcement place. He didn’t practice or vet them; for his or her cash, Jenkins gave the bribers badges and credentials, which recipients utilized in attention-grabbing methods, prefer to get out of site visitors tickets and receive different particular privileges.Â
“Sheriff Scott Jenkins, his spouse Patricia, and their household have been dragged by HELL by a Corrupt and Weaponized Biden DOJ,” Trump posted on TruthSocial in asserting the pardon. He added that Jenkins allegedly needed to supply extra proof in his protection throughout trial, however the choose “refused to permit it, shut him down, after which went on a tirade.”
The Workplace of the Pardon Legal professional didn’t reply to a request for remark clarifying what that was, however a choose improperly blocking exculpatory proof is a matter for an attraction, not a pardon. In any case, the proof in opposition to Jenkins was, by each measure, overwhelming. Rick Rahim, a convicted felon, testified that he bribed Jenkins with $25,000 in money and a further mortgage (which was by no means repaid) so he might be sworn in as an auxiliary deputy. One video exhibits Jenkins accepting a $5,000 examine from a businessman after which including, “I will make it official with a badge.” One other photograph offered at trial exhibits Jenkins holding a present bag; a recording caught businessman Kevin Rychlik, an affiliate of Jenkins, saying, “You could have money from him within the bag.” Two undercover regulation enforcement officers additionally testified that Jenkins accepted bribes from them in trade for being deputized.
A jury in December discovered Jenkins responsible on 12 counts: one rely of conspiracy, 4 counts of trustworthy companies fraud, and 7 counts of bribery. He was sentenced to 10 years in jail.
To argue {that a} pardon right here is in service of “regulation and order”—versus a rejection of it—is to pervert the which means of that time period at a elementary stage. Legislation and order is important to a functioning society. If it stands for something, it can’t exempt the very people who find themselves charged with its utility. If the rule of regulation solely applies to the little man, then it is not price a lot. “With nice energy comes no accountability” shouldn’t be a phrase that has gained a lot traction all through the ages for its knowledge.
So why pardon Jenkins, significantly when contemplating the acknowledged justification—that he could not supply a sure piece of proof in his protection—strains credulity? “No MAGA left behind,” Pardon Legal professional Ed Martin, whose nomination for U.S. Legal professional for the District of Columbia just lately failed to draw sufficient assist within the Senate, mentioned Monday on X. “Thanks, @potus Trump, for pardoning Sheriff Jenkins!”
In a current dialog on The Cause Interview With Nick Gillespie, New York College regulation professor Rachel Barkow, who’s an professional on the pardon energy, instructed me that it’s “solely nearly as good because the individuals who train it.” Former President Joe Biden’s pardons for his prolonged household, Anthony Fauci, and others obtained a substantial amount of criticism—together with in Cause and from me—for undermining the rule of regulation. That continues to be true. And it underscores the truth that Trump can’t distinguish himself from his predecessor right here, after making clear that somebody answerable for implementing the regulation could also be free to violate it, as long as he’s within the president’s good graces.
