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Think of a presidential pardon as a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. The game of Monopoly has only one such card, but presidents have an unlimited supply.
Rarely has a president left office without making at least one pardon that was highly questionable, and highly criticized. Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon in 1974, George H.W. Bush’s pardons of half a dozen Iran-Contra felons in 1992, Bill Clinton’s pardon on his last day in office of Marc Rich, the fugitive financier, and Barack Obama’s pardon of Army Pvt. Chelsea Manning are among those that come to mind.