Slotkin, Stevens push Democrats to abolish presidential pardon

For the last two months, U.S. Sen. Elissa Slotkin has been leading an effort to curb President Donald Trump’s use of executive power.

U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Birmingham) joined Slotkin Tuesday in her calls to end the presidential pardon, criticizing Trump for weighing a decision to pardon Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who is reportedly planning to seek a commutation of her federal prison sentence, according to the Independent.

A judge sentenced Maxwell to 20 years in prison for enabling sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual exploitation of more than 250 underage girls.

“It’s time to stop protecting Donald Trump and to start protecting survivors,” Stevens posted to social media platform X on Tuesday. “The presidential pardon power has been used to reward political allies. Trump has done it again, and again, and again. And now he could even pardon a person who helped run a child sex trafficking ring with Jeffrey Epstein. That’s unacceptable.”

On Nov. 9, Trump issued a pardon for 16 individuals accused of scheming to certify Michigan’s electoral votes for Trump in the 2020 election. While charges against 15 of those individuals were dismissed in September, the 16th reached a cooperation agreement with the Michigan attorney general’s office. His charges were dropped.

Trump has also issued blanket pardons for those involved in the events at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He pardoned Ross William Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence in prison for running a website that acted as a marketplace to trade narcotics.