Impeachment: A Citizen's Guide

by Cass R. Sunstein

George Mason worried over the breadth of the president’s pardon power: “he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself.… If he has the power of granting pardons before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?” Madison answered: “There is one security in this case to which gentlemen may not have adverted: if the President be connected, in any suspicious manner, with any person, and there be grounds to believe he will shelter him, the House of Representatives can impeach him; [and] they can remove him if found guilty.”6 In Madison’s view, “This is a great security.” If the president uses the pardon power in a corrupt way, by pardoning crimes that he has himself advised (and thus sheltering the wrongdoer), impeachment is the remedy.