Politico reports:

In his sweeping pardon of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden did not just protect his son. He also handed President-elect Donald Trump a template to shield his own allies and stretch the pardon power even further.

Legal experts say Trump now has fresh precedent — and political cover — to issue expansive pardons absolving his allies not only of specific offenses, but even any undetermined crimes they may have committed.

With the singular exception of Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, no modern American president had ever issued such a broad grant of clemency until Joe Biden’s “full and unconditional” pardon of his son on Sunday night. The younger Biden is now effectively cleared of legal consequences for any federal law he might have broken over a nearly 11-year period.

Those terms are so unusual — and the process leading to it was so secretive — that the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney, which typically advises the president on clemency issues, was taken by surprise, according to a person who was granted anonymity to disclose the details.

In the final days of Trump’s first term, at least one close ally — former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — requested a similarly sweeping pardon, according to congressional testimony. But top White House aides made clear it was a nonstarter.

Now that Joe Biden has crossed the Rubicon, legal experts and former Trump associates say it will be harder to restrain Trump next time. He now has a readymade rationale to follow suit when he returns to office. [Continue reading…]