Joseph Fahey, of Pompey, is a retired Onondaga County Court judge.
I think almost everyone at some point in their lives has heard the declaration that “crime does not pay.” My father was a city court judge and would frequently remind us of that, particularly during our teen years. I know that I too, reminded criminal defendants in my court for two decades, of this admonition.
I have watched the Trump pardon process since the beginning of his second term, which appears to involve granting pardons to well-heeled benefactors in exchange for hefty political contributions to Trump’s political PACs. In one instance, a pardon was granted to a titan of the cryptocurrency industry with whom the Trumps were doing business. Little or nothing can be done about this practice since the U.S. Supreme Court identified it as a ”core function “of the presidency, and therefore immune from investigation or prosecution…