Trump is now issuing arbitrary pardons for convicted criminals. He’s doing this without even the pretense of some sort of review or justification, just tweeting to the world, bypassing DOJ and established procedure completely. Basically acting like a king. Or tyrant.
The real, deeply disturbing impact of all this will be the effect it has on the American will to ultimately do the right thing. We’ve been beaten down by the incessant drumbeat of Trump’s lies and baseless accusations. Nixon never got anywhere near doing what Trump has done, and continues to do, but even the GOP leadership in 1974 realized Nixon had gone way too far. Contrast the current GOP Congress’ behavior. They remain Trump’s faithful lapdog, ignoring his corruption and coarseness with a willful ignorance that is astonishing to behold. Surely to God this moral and ethical failure is at least embarrassing to them, on some level. The extent to which they have completely abrogated their Article One responsibilities is more than shocking; it borders on treason.
As has been pointed out in many places, the unpreventable POTUS power to pardon (how’s THAT for some cool alliteration? 
) originated in old English law, with it’s concept of a king’s divine right. In all the history of the U.S. (notwithstanding Nixon’s considered attempt), the use of that pardon has always been subject to strict review, to an established process. While not “law” per se, this adherence to custom and norms has, until Trump, pretty much had the force of law, if not the letter. Trump has completely destroyed those historic constraints, and is now arbitrarily pardoning right and left, obviously sending “keep the faith” messages to all the players lined up to potentially flip on him.
Whether he would actually issue blatant, unreviewed and arbitrary pardons for Manafort, Cohen, etc, is open to debate. He may just be sending the signals to those people to keep them silent, by pardoing people who have (mainly, save Sheriff Joe) already done their time, and thus for whom the pardon is pretty much an empty gesture. The only reason to issue these tweeted pardons is to send the message to his partners in crime, sending up the clear smoke signal that he will definitely “take care of them.” He may may have no intention of actually exercising a potentially incriminating pardon after they are convicted. There is no depth of dishonesty and betrayal to which Trump will not sink.
Those who make a deal with the devil always find themselves in hell when it’s all over. That’s how all the stories go, right?
© 2018 Chuck Puckett