Mary McCord, Former Justice Department Official:

Well, I think it really does damage to our criminal legal system.

I mean, pardons are certainly given by presidents of both parties. The typical — and we have seen some unusual uses of pardons recently, which I know we’re going to talk about. But when we’re talking about people like the January 6 attackers, over 1,200 of which have been convicted, 1,000 of those have pled guilty, another 250 or more have been found guilty after a trial, then we’re talking normally, in those type of situations, a pardon is an act of mercy when somebody, the person convicted has changed their life for the better, served a substantial amount of time.

There’s been mitigating circumstances that make a president feel like it would be unfair to continue to incarcerate that person. Sometimes, it’s because sentencing laws have changed and people sentenced under old regimes are serving what now seem to be draconian sentences.

But this is very different. This is part — at least if you listen to what President Trump says, it’s not about an act of mercy and forgiveness for what people have done that it violates the law. It’s part of his entire false narrative that there was no crime, that this was a peaceful protest and that those who’ve been charged and convicted are hostages.

So I think it does real damage to our criminal justice system. Each one of these defendants has had due process of law. They have had attorneys to counsel them. They have had jury trials if they wanted to go to trial. Their constitutional rights have been respected. And it’s part of our adherence to the rule of law that those are not just the kind of people that you just said you’re going to give blanket pardons to, or even in the cases you were mentioning commutations.