Word: pardon
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...news of President Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon hit TIME staffers when most were just beginning to recover from closing the magazine. At 9:15 a.m. Sunday, Washington Correspondent Bonnie Angelo was alerted to the pending announcement. Correspondents from Los Angeles to Boston went into high gear, while from backyards and boats, beaches and in a few cases beds, some 45 researchers, reporters, copyreaders, production and layout specialists, photographers and editors headed for midtown Manhattan, many in blue jeans. Senior Editor Marshall Loeb had been asleep only a few hours when he was called in from Westchester...
...therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States, pursuant to the pardon power conferred upon me by Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution, have granted and by these presents do grant a full, free and absolute pardon unto Richard Nixon for all offenses against the United States which he, Rich ard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969, through Au gust...
More than that, the President added, the "serious allegations and accusations hang like a sword over our former President's head and threaten his health as he tries to reshape his life." Most important, Ford hoped that the pardon would help heal the nation. Any move to bring Nixon to trial, the President noted, would have taken many months or years. During that period "ugly passions would again be aroused, our people would again be polarized in their opinions, and the credibility of our free institutions of Government would again be challenged at home and abroad...
...story). Supporters agreed with Ford that his predecessor had indeed "suffered enough." Critics, including many legal experts, charged that Ford had established a dual system of justice, that he had put Richard Nixon above the law. On all sides, there were grave questions about the ways in which the pardon would affect the men currently jailed or awaiting trial for Watergate-related offenses (see story page 19). Said John J. Wilson, counsel for one of the six men who are scheduled to go on trial in Washington on Sept. 30 on charges of conspiring to cover up the Watergate burglary...
Some cynics assumed that a deal had been struck between Ford and Nixon in the fateful early days of August: Nixon would quit if Ford would agree to pardon him at the earliest feasible moment. But that seemed highly unlikely, particularly considering that the pressures on Nixon to resign grew irresistible after it was revealed?three days before he quit?that Nixon had long been involved in the Watergate cover-up and had repeatedly lied to the nation about his actual role...