Slotkin, Stevens Push Democrats to Abolish Presidential Pardon [WLNS]
WASHINGTON, D.C. – After voting to release the long-blocked Epstein Files, Congresswoman Haley Stevens joined Senator Elissa Slotkin’s calls to “push Democrats to abolish [the] Presidential Pardon.” With Trump considering pardons for Ghislaine Maxwell and others involved in Epstein’s child sex trafficking ring, Congresswoman Haley Stevens also released a new video outlining why the abuse of power must end, and the presidential pardon must go.
Here’s what Michiganders are seeing and reading about Haley standing up to Donald Trump’s abuses of power:
WLNS: Slotkin, Stevens push Democrats to abolish presidential pardon
Brad LaPlante
November 19, 2025
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. During a town hall in August, the Democrat from Holly called it a “quirk of history that does not make sense in America for either party any longer.” She said lawmakers should revoke the 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.”
In a video posted to social media this week, Slotkin said the presidential pardon “doesn’t make sense in the modern world.” She said she doesn’t support it for either political party.
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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.
In Trump’s first term, he pardoned former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was charged with crimes related to selling former President Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat, among other “pay to play” schemes. The Illinois House voted 114-1 to impeach him, and he was removed from office and prohibited from ever holding office in the state again by two separate unanimous votes in the Illinois Senate. Blagojevich was released from prison at least four years early in 2020 after Trump commuted his sentence. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been eligible for early release until at least March 2024.
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