Congresswoman Madeleine Dean of Glenside co-authored an opinion piece in The New Republic titled “Trump’s Corrupt Pardons May Well Be the Most Corrupt Thing About Him“.

The op-ed was co-authored by Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

An excerpt:

Joseph Schwartz had a multistate nursing home empire. Through negligence and fraud, including deaths of patients in his facilities, it unraveled, leaving the families of the victims with nothing. And Schwartz responded by engaging in a massive payroll tax scheme, bilking his employees of $39 million. As ProPublica wrote, “He pleaded guilty last April to failure to pay the IRS taxes withheld from employees and failing to file a financial report for his employees’ benefit plan. A federal judge sentenced him to three years in prison.”

Schwartz’s is only the latest of a series of pardons of fraudsters. Of all the corrupt actions taken in chapter 2 of the Trump presidency, none is more shocking than the misuse of the presidential pardon—not just for personal gain but to reward friends, enrich lobbyist buddies, and make clear that anyone who commits a crime to further Mr. Trump’s interests need not fear prosecution.

Our Constitution does not limit presidential pardons. The Framers debated bestowing this immense power upon one individual, yet ultimately believed that presidential integrity, and the possibility of impeachment, would shield it from corruption. Unfortunately, the Framers did not anticipate a president with no integrity—nor did they anticipate a Congress abandoning its Article 1 authority in service to an unprincipled executive.

As we prepare to celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary, we must safeguard our democracy and counteract Mr. Trump’s corruption. And we believe the only way to restore the presidential pardon power to its original, merciful purpose is through a constitutional amendment.

In related news, Dean was interviewed by CNN on Friday regarding President Donald Trump’s address to the nation, gas prices, and the firing of AG Pam Bondi.

The clip is below:

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Screengrab: CNN