Liz Cheney Might Reject a Pardon Offer

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

There were two stories regarding former GOP Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming in the news this morning.   One on an internet news site  which reported that Ms. Cheney was among twenty individuals who will be honored today at a White House ceremony where President Biden will present them with the Presidential Citizens Medal, the second highest civilian medal and something that is certain to stick in the craw of the incoming President.

A story on National Public Radio (NPR) this morning said that President Biden is considering offering a preemptive pardon to Ms. Cheney as well as several others whom  the incoming administration seems to have targeted for legal action once it is established in office.  The next (and former) President said on "Meet the Press" when speaking of Cheney's co-chairmanship of the bipartisan Congressional committee which investigated the January 6th, 2021, attack on the US Capitol:  

"Cheney did something that's inexcusable, along with (Congressman Bennie) Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of thugs and you know, creeps . . . Honestly, they should go to jail."

That remark seems to be a clear indicator of where the President-Elect's mind is at regarding Liz Cheney, and it is even more threatening when taken in the context of the marginal characters whom he has chosen to run the federal arm of domestic law enforcement - the Justice Department and the FBI.  Ms. Cheney's freedom could be at actual risk for fulfilling her duties to Congress and to the American people.

But President Biden could conceivably protect Liz Cheney and her January 6th committee co-chair Bennie Thompson, a Democrat from Mississippi - and others whom the in-coming President has targeted through past remarks - by issuing some sort of "preemptive" blanket pardons which could cover specific activities and time periods.

The process is legal going back at least to President Ford's complete pardon of his predecessor in office, Richard Nixon, and it was used most recently by President Biden when he pardoned his son for specific crimes as well as for any crimes committed during a specific time period.   Preemptive pardons are protective measures to prevent political and vindictive prosecutions - and few politicians are more vindictive and petty that the next President.

But would Liz Cheney accept such a protective measure when she literally did nothing but her duty to Congress and to the American people?    Liz is one tough bird - and the daughter of a couple of other very tough birds - and one must suspect that she might just stand tall and tell America's greatest mistake to "bring it on!"

In fact, I think that is exactly what she will do.

Accepting a preemptive pardon would not be an admission of guilt, though some would read it that way.  But the image of a mother of five wearing an orange jumpsuit and being locked away inside of a federal prison for doing nothing but standing tall for the Constitution might be more than decent Americans would be willing to tolerate - and it might just signal the rise of a political martyr who could cast a long shadow over the next several presidential elections.

Focusing on his enemies brought down Richard Nixon, and it could easily do the same to Trump.