Do not investigate Trump’s corporate allies until he leaves office

The United States’ presidential pardon power has created a constitutional absurdity in which exposing corruption may protect those responsible. In a functioning constitutional democracy, allegations of corporate corruption would ordinarily invite immediate investigation. Congress would demand documents, summon executives and expose wrongdoing to public scrutiny.

With Democrats having won control of both houses of Congress, the expectation will be that they exercise these oversight powers vigorously. In Donald Trump’s America, however, there is a compelling argument for doing precisely the opposite. This may sound absurd, but it follows from the extraordinary breadth of the presidential pardon power.

Under the US Constitution, a president may pardon individuals for federal crimes before they have been charged, investigated or convicted. What was conceived as an exceptional power of mercy can become an instrument for protecting political associates, wealthy benefactors and corporate executives from criminal accountability.