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Donald Trump's Clemencies: Unconventional Acts, Conventional Justifications Cover

Donald Trump's Clemencies: Unconventional Acts, Conventional Justifications

Open Access
|Sep 2022

Figures & Tables

Figure 1

Trump's Clemency Justifications.
Trump's Clemency Justifications.

Figure 2

Composition of Retributive Justifications.
Composition of Retributive Justifications.

Figure 3

Composition of Rehabilitative Justifications, split between acceptance of responsibility and redeeming behavior.
Composition of Rehabilitative Justifications, split between acceptance of responsibility and redeeming behavior.

Distribution of justifications across Pardon Attorney Recommendation_

YES & PROBABLYNO & PROBABLY NOTTotal
Retributive8238246
Rehabilitative30184214
Character Related1111112
Utilitarian11011
Evidence of Smooth Re-entry33336
Mercy-Sympathy01515
Total43591634

Distribution of justifications across Medium of Statement_

White House Press StatementTweet from @White-house45Tweet from @Trump-WarRoomTweet from @Real-Donald TrumpScripted Speeches and Planned RemarksUnscripted Interviews and RemarksTotal
RETRIBUTIVE11980352064246
REHABILITATIVE185116192214
CHARACTER81005818112
UTILITARIAN72000211
SMOOTH RE-ENTRY360000036
MERCY110021115
Total439216433887634

Distribution of justifications across Type of Crime_ The total number of justifications increased from our original 634, since we counted the justification for all the crimes for which Trump granted clemency_ In some cases, the same justification was used to pardon two or even three different crimes_

ObstructionFinancialDrugCrime against PersonCrime against PropertyOtherTotal
Retributive1166938271711278
Rehabilitative96810382013221
Character Based26431521511121
Utilitarian32032111
Smooth Re-entry042902237
Mercy/Sympathy76211017
Total161192187604738685

Distribution of justifications between Pre and Post January 6th_

Pre-January 6thPost-January 6th
RETRIBUTIVE20244
REHABILITATIVE91123
CHARACTER7438
UTILITARIAN74
SMOOTH RE-ENTRY333
MERCY123
Total399245

Distribution of justifications across involvement in the Mueller Investigation_

MuellerNon-MuellerTotal
Retributive96150246
Rehabilitative0214214
Character Related1498112
Utilitarian01111
Evidence of Smooth Re-entry03636
Mercy-Sympathy51015
Total115519634
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/bjals-2022-0005 | Journal eISSN: 2719-5864 | Journal ISSN: 2049-4092
Language: English
Page range: 173 - 207
Published on: Sep 12, 2022
Published by: Birmingham City University
In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services
Publication frequency: 2 issues per year

© 2022 Austin Sarat, Laura Gottesfeld, Carolina Kettles, Olivia Ward, published by Birmingham City University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.