To the Editor:
Re “There’s Actually Something We Can Do About Trump’s Pardons,” by Tim Wu (Opinion guest essay, June 18):
Mr. Wu’s proposal that states prosecute crimes for which President Trump has granted pardons to “well-connected and wealthy felons” is excellent. But another avenue of accountability deserves consideration.
If a pardon is procured through a corrupt payment or quid pro quo arrangement, those involved may be subject to prosecution for the bribery — a crime distinct from the offense that was pardoned. Such crimes may, in many instances, be easier to prosecute than the underlying crimes, particularly where the original offenses involved complex financial schemes committed years earlier.
To be sure, Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court decision granting the president broad immunity for official acts, arguably creates an evidentiary obstacle to such prosecutions. Yet the court’s opinion may also leave room for them.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that “testimony or private records of the president or his advisers probing the official act itself” may not be admitted. But proving the fact that a pardon was granted would appear to require neither testimony from presidential advisers nor private presidential records. A pardon is a matter of public record.
State prosecution of the underlying crimes is one response to President Trump’s abuse of the pardon power. Prosecution of those who corruptly procure pardons is another.
Robert E. Lehrer
Chicago
The writer is a retired lawyer.
To the Editor:
Our Constitution gives the president the power to “grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States.” The growing misuse of this power and the role of lobbies in securing pardons should be a matter of concern to all Americans.
Though pardons have indeed reached new levels during the current administration, let us not forget President Bill Clinton’s pardon of the fugitive financier Marc Rich during his final hours in office in 2001 — an act that Tim Wu rightly calls “indefensible.”
His suggestion that the states pick up the prosecution of those wrongfully pardoned is a novel solution, but after the fact and cumbersome.
A simpler solution would be a constitutional amendment that eliminates the presidential power to pardon. The time is long overdue.
Erwin Krause
Oakdale, N.Y.
A Loophole That Harms Our Oceans
To the Editor:
Re “A Better Way to Catch Seafood,” by Paul Greenberg (Opinion guest essay, June 14):
This article about the destructive fishing practice known as bottom trawling notes that 80 percent of Americans’ seafood is imported. Much of the other 20 percent comes from Alaska, including a billion-dollar pollock industry that supplies everything from fish sticks to imitation crab in sushi.
What the article misses is that protected areas in American waters are being trawled on the bottom thanks to a regulatory loophole. On June 8, I testified before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, urging it to close this loophole.
In Alaska, the damage caused by bottom trawling is widely recognized, which is why it is banned in protected habitats in the North Pacific. Unfortunately, the pelagic trawlers that catch pollock — also known as midwater trawlers because they are meant to fish away from both the bottom and the surface — have evaded this ban for decades. That’s because there is no formal policy that requires them to stay off the seafloor. In fact, science shows that they have affected more than 57,000 square miles of Alaskan seafloor.
Like bottom trawlers, they can have nets wider than a football field and anchored by a weighted chain up to a quarter-mile long. Long-lived corals are especially vulnerable. After my testimony, I saw and heard members of the council assert that these nets don’t cause meaningful damage and refuse to prohibit nets from hitting the bottom in these protected habitats.
I’m a scientist by training. I have reviewed data and trawling studies worldwide. But all it takes is common sense to understand that hitting delicate ecosystems with a heavy chain can damage them.
Megan Williams
Truckee, Calif.
The writer is a fisheries scientist at Ocean Conservancy.
