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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.

Figure 2

Composition of Retributive Justifications.

Figure 3

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
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.