President Donald Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republican’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon applies only to federal crimes, and none of the dozens of Trump allies named in the proclamation were ever charged federally over the bid to subvert the election won by Democrat Joe Biden. It doesn’t impact state charges, though state prosecutions stemming from the 2020 election have hit a dead end or are just limping along.
Because the justice system is entirely formed on the belief that it is better to let many guilty people go free than one innocent person be punished, or so it is said. So giving the president the ultimate ability to grant clemency, but none to punish, was an intentional, last ditch method for preventing injustice, supposedly.