Opinion: How Trump's Pardons Could Get Even More Bizarre

CNN
4 minute read | December.23.2020

President Donald Trump announced a wave of pardons on Tuesday for people ranging from Republican allies to two men who pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Meanwhile, speculation grows about whether President Trump will pardon three of his adult children, his son-in-law, or even himself before his term ends on January 20.

But what if he issues these pardons and — unlike those just made public — no one finds out? That is not as far-fetched as it seems.

Trump's pardon power derives from a brief clause in the Constitution that simply gives him the authority to grant "Reprieves and Pardons" for federal offenses. But the Constitution imposes no requirement that a pardon be made public, filed, or disclosed at any time, including before the President leaves office. Although a federal law, the Presidential Records Act, does require that all presidential decisions be adequately documented — and that those records be filed with the National Archives when the President leaves office — the law is relatively toothless and does not include a process for enforcing it.

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Daniel R. Alonso Partner, White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance, Strategic Advisory & Government Enforcement (SAGE)

New York

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White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
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Higher Education and Student Loan Financing
Latin America

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Daniel R. Alonso Partner

New York

Dan has more than 30 years of criminal, civil, enforcement and compliance experience. He served in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York (EDNY) for nearly a decade, including three years as Chief of the Criminal Division, and was later the Chief Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. In between, he was a litigation partner at an Am Law 100 firm. He also served as Managing Director and General Counsel at global compliance firm Exiger. He is an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, where he teaches a seminar on transnational corruption.

Legal 500 has recognized Dan for his work in Corporate Investigations and White Collar Criminal Defense, and SuperLawyers has recognized him for Criminal Defense: White Collar. Additionally, over many years of public service, Dan received the New York City Bar Association’s Henry L. Stimson Medal, given to outstanding Assistant U.S. Attorneys; the District Attorneys Association of the State of New York’s Robert M. Morgenthau Award; and the Fund for Modern Courts’ John J. McCloy Award for his contributions to improving the judicial system. He is also a four-time recipient of the Justice Department’s Director’s Award for Superior Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Dan was recently appointed by the Governor of New York to the New York State Commission on Prosecutorial Conduct. He also currently serves on the New York State Bar Association's Committee on Standards of Attorney Conduct, and is a former member of the Attorney Grievance Committee for New York’s First Judicial Department. Dan was also a member of the 2020 and 2021 Integrity & Compliance Taskforces of the B20, the G20’s dialogue with the global business community. Previously, he was a gubernatorial appointee to the New York State Commission on Public Integrity; and in 2009 was appointed Special Counsel to a New York State Senate Select Committee that investigated and recommended the expulsion of a senator convicted of domestic violence. He is also a former co-chair of the New York State White Collar Crime Task Force, and a former chair of the Council on Criminal Justice of the New York City Bar Association. He is the immediate past President of the New York American Inn of Court.

A prolific writer, speaker, and commentator, Dan’s articles have been published by Foreign Policy, CNN Opinion, Anti-Corruption Report, Business Crimes Bulletin, the National Law Journal, the New York Law Journal, CFO Magazine, FCPA Blog, Bloomberg Law, the New York Daily News, and Argentina’s La Nación, and he is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Financial Compliance. Formerly a Legal Analyst at NBC News/MSNBC, he has appeared on national and international news networks including CNN, ABC, Fox, Telemundo, Univision, the BBC, MSNBC, and France24, as well as several local New York outlets, and has been quoted in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The New Yorker, The Guardian, Reuters, Vanity Fair, Daily Beast, Newsweek, New York Law Journal, Law360, and Variety. Dan has also served as an on-set technical consultant to feature film directors Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg on Hollywood films The Irishman, The Post, Bridge of Spies, and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Dan is a native speaker of Spanish and a conversational speaker of Portuguese, and has been invited to speak in both languages across Latin America and Spain on FCPA enforcement, compliance, independent monitorships and AML, including in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Spain, Chile, Uruguay, Panama, Ecuador and Costa Rica.

From 1995-1996, he served as law clerk to Judge Joseph W. Bellacosa of the New York Court of Appeals.

Before joining Orrick in early 2023, Dan was a partner at Buckley LLP.