President Trump has embraced clemency as an expression of raw political power, seizing on a unique authority designed to go unchecked by Congress, the Constitution or the courts.

Why it matters: No presidential power is more absolute than the pardon. And no president has wielded it more openly as a tool of personal and ideological loyalty than Donald Trump.

Zoom in: Trump's extraordinary move to pardon former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández — convicted last year of flooding the U.S. with tons of cocaine — is among the clearest examples yet. • Prosecutors said Hernández, who led Honduras from 2014 to 2022, conspired with cartels to pave a "cocaine superhighway" into the U.S. — posing as an anti-drug conservative while running his country like a narco state. • In an Oct. 28 l

See Full Page