The Rev. Jesse Jackson is calling for President Barack Obama to issue a presidential pardon to Secretary Hillary Clinton before he leaves office? President-elect Trump has said he will prosecute her for the crimes already proven in the various e-mail investigations. The question of a pardon had never occurred to me before, but it is an excellent one.

Mrs. Clinton lost to Trump; that fact makes her a tragic figure. The thinking is that she is a victim of an unjust system that failed to recognize she deserved to be president; she outspent Mr. Trump 2 to 1 and had all the proper media support, and her loss was a tragedy. So, as a tragic figure how do we kick her when she is down, how do we not pardon her for crimes committed in public office?  

Mrs. Clinton violated the law and that is a slam dunk fact; the criminal justice system opted to refuse to prosecute, and that is their privilege. However, it does not change the facts. The defenders of Mrs. Clinton will tell us that the documents provided by WikiLeaks were illegally hacked and thus are not admissible evidence. The fruits of the poisonous tree doctrine basically states that all evidence that stems from illegal law enforcement activity is not admissible. If the search is illegal, all evidence branching from the search is not admissible in court; the fruit of the search is poisoned.

An outside party acting completely independently of law enforcement such as the news media or WikiLeaks breaks into an e-mail file or private home and uncovers evidence that a crime has occurred. That evidence is presented to law enforcement (once again the break-in was not directed or known of by law enforcement) and is admissible. The criminal acts of the media or WikiLeaks in this example are punishable by law, but the evidence uncovered is admissible in court.

If Obama pardons Mrs. Clinton, the folks who mold opinion, the media, will cheer the act. President Obama’s actions would be entirely legal, but the question is one of morality, decency, fairness and honor, not law. The left wing 90% of the media will cheer him and praise his actions as an example of his Saul-like wisdom. The illegal activities of the Clinton family and the white collar out-and-out robbery of a charity will be forgotten. The illegal activities in the pay-to-play case will be downplayed as “everyone does it.”

The excellent question of the pardon however needs to be expanded to ask: will he also pardon President William Clinton and daughter Chelsea? The Clinton Foundation is operated by all three Clintons; their names are on the masthead and the pay-to-play activities could see all three indicted. The illegal activities involving highly classified documents is a cross for Mrs. Clinton to bear, but the Clinton Foundation investigation will affect all three and many more.

To think that the pardon process is not being planned or discussed in the oval office is naïve; the political appointees in the White house and at Justice and the FBI surely have a pile of research, study and press releases ready to drop. Catastrophes are being researched to be discovered days before and after the pardons. The actions of Iran in the Strait of Hormuz, the Russians bombing civilians in Syria, the murders, enslavement and rape of Christians and children by ISIS/ISIL/DAESH will suddenly be a crisis in the eyes of the media and our government.

As we have seen so many times before, the media working in concert with the left wing political establishment will act as carnival barkers directing the American people’s attention away from the pardons of the Clinton family to selected, studied, focus-grouped disasters designed to bury the pardons on the page 23 below the fold of the Washington Post and New York Times.

President Obama has tied his legacy to the Clinton family; he must pardon them or be tainted by their convictions. The Democrat Party needs to erase the stain; a pardon or three will be forthcoming. Oddly enough, the best thing for President-elect Trump would be a pardon of the Clintons, clearing the way for the new direction our nation so desperately needs to take.