> And the optics would be _awful_; no sensible president would do it in the first place.

That's obviously no longer a constraint. The optics of pardoning Anthony Lewandowski (among many, many others) looked awful and he was still pardoned.

I suspect that was peak Ridiculous President Behaviour, tbh. Any future president that venal will take care to hide it a _little_ better.

And I think that was a little different; in that highly polarized environment it was possibly a little easier to sell corrupt pardons if they were of people on the president's 'team'; at least some of his supporters would put up with it on that basis. Holmes wouldn't qualify; she's just a generic wealthy criminal.

Marc Rich?

This pardon abuse has been going on for awhile.

In America, we can no longer count on a sensible president.