On September 8, 1974, then President Gerald Ford granted his immediate presidential predecessor, Richard Nixon, a “full, free, and absolute pardon” for any crimes he may have committed against the United States as president. The pardon not only ended the Watergate scandal in terms of any impeachment trial of Nixon in the United States Senate, but also ended the possibility of indictment for any criminal actions.
Along with many other Americans at the time, I was angry that such a pardon of the former President had been given. While Ford justified his action as an act he thought was saving the country from further turmoil and limiting further trauma being experienced by the Nixon family, I felt little support for President Ford’s decision.
Even later when President Ford expressed additional rationale that his pardon – in the words of a 1915 US Supreme Court decision in Burdick v. United States – carried the “imputation” of guilt and that Nixon’s acceptance of the pardon carried a confession of guilt, my mind was not changed.
Accepting the Presidential Pardon, former President Nixon refused to admit to any criminal wrongdoing in the Watergate scandal. Even though most all of Nixon’s top aides were convicted of felonies in the Watergate matter, served time in prison, and testified that Nixon not only knew about the Watergate crimes but was the chief instigator, Nixon proclaimed his innocence.
But Nixon did issue a statement.
I was wrong in not acting more decisively and forthrightly in dealing with Watergate, particularly when it reached the stage of judicial proceedings and grew from a political scandal to a national tragedy. No words can describe the depth of my regret and pain at the anguish my mistakes over Watergate have caused the nation and the presidency, a nation I so deeply love and an institution I so greatly respect.
Regardless of all the rationale for a presidential pardon then and the hindsight of 48 years of history now, I very much regret that former President Nixon did not stand trial and if convicted, had been sentenced for his crimes. My regret has nothing to do with wanting to see Nixon punished or because of resentment for him. Rather, my frustration was he was not being held accountable.
What is so troubling to me is that Nixon’s pardon illustrates the disparity in how law and accountability for crimes is applied in our country. We all know such disparity exists. Since Nixon’s pardon we have come to accept that selective pardon is just the way of things.
Indeed, while there has been some positive change forced by the “Me Too” movement, there continues to be in our country at the top of political office, executive business and finance a culture of selective pardon, golden parachutes, and all manner of early retirement arrangements which circumvent accountability when bad actors have been discovered.
How many persons at the decision-making level leading financial institutions thought too big to fail and who were responsible for the mortgage loan crises were held to any real account? What kind of accountability is there for executives who have made boatloads of money from the opioid epidemic? What accountability will we expect for those who have made great fortunes as a result of manipulating the economics of the pandemic? We have a culture of selective pardon for the powerful and rich.
The culture of selective pardon is now so great that a two-time impeached and excused former president now promises pardon, should he be re-elected, for his supporters now being punished for trashing the national Capitol. The culture of pardon at the top is so pervasive that the same former President can profit from his big lie regarding election fraud and arrogantly perpetuate it. And by the way, can you imagine him making a statement like Nixon expressing regret and pain for any “mistakes” or for causing anguish in our country?
We are in significant peril because of the legacy of pardoning a past guilty president. The legacy continues to haunt and possess our nation with a growing number of demons in a post-Watergate, selective pardon culture of public life.
The fact that we are now a nation where far too many accept alternate facts, discount science, promote conspiracy and the acceptance of how law is applied based largely on wealth, social status, and influence – both political and financial – on the judicial system at all levels means that we no longer even aspire to be “one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all” but find ourselves a spiritually fractured nation.
We are proudly conjuring false gods, bearing false witness, and self-righteously allowing ourselves to be divided by those who would restrict liberty and justice to like-minded compatriots.
And if that were not more than enough, it now seems to be tolerable with too many of us that there are more and more candidates who advocate for the prosecution, penalization, and otherwise segregation of those who fail a theocratic litmus test written by religious wackos and proctored by an amoral former president who appears incapable of loving anyone other than himself.
While I think that our present unhappiness in public life is the legacy of a 48-year-old presidential pardon, I also think that there is always hope for a far better day. Principled voices may well affect the arrival of a healing accounting. There are investigations which may yet reveal crimes that will awaken our complacencies and dispel our present enthrallment with purveyors of falsehood. We will see their deeds that cannot go unpunished.
In the meantime, we can trust in this ancient prophetic word from Amos. Calling out the political and religious hypocrisy of his time, where all sorts of pardons for all sorts of corruptions were commonplace, Amos delivered God’s word which came to pass after a national fiery trial that led to reform.
LET JUSTICE ROLL DOWN LIKE WATER AND RIGHTEOUSNESS LIKE AN EVER-FLOWING STREAM.
Amos 5:24
O God, have your way with us…again.