The White House officials, however, are carefully weighing the extraordinary step of handing out blanket pardons to those who’ve committed no crimes, both because it could suggest impropriety, only fueling Trump’s criticisms, and because those offered preemptive pardons may reject them.
This is such a tough problem to deal with. On the one hand, if the Trump administration were to talk like this, which they did, we’d be up in arms, which we were. But it’s hard to believe the threat of going after people without cause isn’t real.