Can a Governor or the US President pardon an Assassin he hired? (lemmy.world)

submitted 5 months ago by Roflmasterbigpimp@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Hello! I was scrolling along until I saw an article about a Pardon in Texas. In the comment section people talked about how pardons are even still a thing and one User pointed out that they are totally easy to abuse. Like why can't a governor hire a hitman to kill his political Opponents and then just pardon him? Would this be possible? Can a governor or let's say the president just straight up do that?

Thank you all in advance!

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[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 7 points 5 months ago

The president is the head of the executive branch and the commander in chief of the army. Congress theoretically has to approve war declarations of the president, but they haven't exercised that right in like a century. But the stuff the president does in the situation room is traditionally treated as above the law. Nobody is successfully suing the president over a drone strike killing their dad. Regardless of whether the average person agrees it was justified or not.

And the CIA is a whole other story. They can legitimately make anyone disappear and nobody will hold them accountable.

It's not a question of the letter of the law. It's a question of how it's actually treated and enforced in practice.

this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2024

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