Suppose Biden Revokes all these Pardons..

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17. That almost surely can't be done, but I think it's an interesting question.

The first question is, can a president revoke a pardon. The constitution doesn't say because it's hard to imagine anyone would have contemplated this.

But an argument could be made the the power to grant pardons includes the power to revoke them.

Note that the constitution tells us how the nation can enter into treaties, but does not say anything about abandoning a treaty. This first came up when shrub was president. Donnie, at least, has abandoned treaties and that has gone unchallenged.

Revoking a pardon is somewhat analogous.


That said, a pardon and revoke may cause other problems like double jeopardy. So it depends on how far down that legal process we are. If someone has been tried and convicted and then pardoned, I think a revoked pardon can mean it goes back on the criminal record, but they can't put you back in prison or try you a second time.

But if the pardon and revoke happened before trial, then I'm not sure why they couldn't try you a first time.



In practice, I don't see it ever happening. If ever it was appropriate, "crook pardons fellow crooks" would be the perfect case for it, but I don't see Biden wanting to fight that fight. He's got too much else going on.