George Will Blasts Trump’s ‘Grotesque’ Pardon Power Abuse After January 6 Riot Pardons

Donald Trump’s first act after returning to the White House on January 20, 2025, was to pardon the January 6 rioters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol four years earlier. This move, long promised on the 2024 campaign trail, was met with outrage from Democrats and even some conservatives who oppose Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. Among the critics is George Will, the longtime Washington Post columnist and conservative intellectual who left the Republican Party in disgust and now identifies as an independent.

In an April 10 column, Will excoriates Trump’s “grotesque use of the pardon power” as emblematic of a broader decay in the constitutional system. He points out that the presidential pardon, originally a rarely used constitutional check, has become “another source of political brutishness fueling voters’ cynicism.” Trump’s pardoning of the January 6 defendants, whom he labeled “hostages,” is a blatant pandering to his base that directly conflicts with the president’s constitutional duty to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

Will also takes aim at Joe Biden, noting that his clemency moves on marijuana offenses and capital punishment, while less incendiary, similarly clash with the principle of law enforcement integrity. The problem, Will argues, is systemic and bipartisan: the pardon power has morphed into a political weapon.

Drawing on University of Virginia law professor Saikrishna Bangalore Prakash’s new book, The Presidential Pardon: The Short Clause with a Long, Troubled History, Will describes the current era as a “pardon dystopia.” He highlights how pardons have become a lucrative industry in Washington, citing a case where one Trump pardon saved a fraudster nearly half a billion dollars.

Will laments the lack of effective checks on this power. Proposals like submitting pardons to the president’s Cabinet or creating an independent Clemency Commission are unlikely to succeed because presidents naturally resist losing authority. The current Cabinet’s “toadyism” only worsens the problem.

Ultimately, Will delivers a bleak prognosis: no institutional fix is likely, and the only real remedy is electing presidents who respect the rule of law — a prospect dimmed by the growing cynicism that loutish pardons like Trump’s only deepen.

This critique from a prominent conservative voice underscores the alarming erosion of democratic norms under Trump and the urgent need for accountability in presidential clemency. The pardon power, once a tool for mercy and justice, now too often serves as a cloak for corruption and loyalty to lawlessness.