Trump makes history by pardoning a corporation (BitMEX cryptocurrency exchange)

[Eugene]

Source: The Hill

Trump makes history by pardoning a corporation

by Kimberly Wehle, opinion contributor - 04/01/25 11:00 AM ET

In what may be a first in American history, President Trump just expanded the presidential pardon power to include corporations.

Corporations are artificial legal fictions designed to maximize shareholder wealth. Nonetheless, they can theoretically commit crimes and be indicted for them. According to a 1999 memorandum from the Justice Department, the “important public benefits” of prosecuting corporations include “deterrence on a massive scale,” particularly for “crimes that carry with them a substantial risk of public harm,” such as “financial frauds.”

Such public benefits now fall prey to the whims of the president with his pardon of a cryptocurrency company that smacks of political corruption.

On Friday, Trump issued full and unconditional pardons to four individuals and a related cryptocurrency exchange, BitMEX.

-snip-

Read more: https://thehill.com/opinion/criminal-justice/5224229-trump-makes-history-by-pardoning-a-corporation/

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. Throwing corporations in jail would actually mean stopping them from business activities (earning a living)

... while serving a sentence. So the legal fiction that corporations are people is only actually a fiction despite some interpretations.

[Bluethroughu]

2. If he can pardon a corporation, then a corporate board can go to prison for murder when they hedge their gross

negligence for profit.

[Norrrm]

3. I refuse to believe corporations are people until Texas executes one.

[Beastly Boy]

4. Did he pardon Hitler yet?