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Jan. 6 defendant caught with child porn argues Trump’s pardon should include that too

One of the Trump supporters who stormed the Capitol building on January 6th 2021 was found to have CSAM on his personal devices during a search related to January 6th. He now tries to argue that Trump's pardon also applies to this unrelated crime because it was uncovered as part of an investigation into a pardoned crime.

Based on the text of the pardon, does this argument have merit?

The pardons are in the Presidential Action title GRANTING PARDONS AND COMMUTATION OF SENTENCES FOR CERTAIN OFFENSES RELATING TO THE EVENTS AT OR NEAR THE UNITED STATES CAPITOL ON JANUARY 6, 2021

(a) commute the sentences of the following individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021, to time served as of January 20, 2025:

[Names of 14 individuals]

(b) grant a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021;

Barmar
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Nzall
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2 Answers2

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He now tries to argue that Trump's pardon also applies to this unrelated crime because it was uncovered as part of an investigation into a pardoned crime.

The question is resolved purely on the basis of the exact language of the pardon instrument. The scope of the investigation into the pardoned crime is irrelevant. Without that language, it is impossible to resolve the question.

This language is not available in the linked news story, so it is hard to evaluate. There are some common ways that pardons are written, but there is not a single uniform form document for pardons.

ohwilleke
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Probably not

The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

Cases following Garland and Carlisle also began to note limits to the Court’s broad framing of the effect of a pardon, however; in Knote, the Court wrote that although a pardon blots out the offence in a legal sense, it does not make amends for the past. . . . The offence being established by judicial proceedings, that which has been done or suffered while they were in force is presumed to have been rightfully done and justly suffered, and no satisfaction for it can be required."

So, the search warrant (a "judicial proceeding") was "rightfully done." While the law doesn't explicitly state that executive actions—like executing the search—are "presumed to have been rightfully done," it's highly likely the court, with this precedent available, will find that they are.

Because, no one wants to let paedophiles out on a technicality.

Dale M
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