The Pardon: Nixon, Ford and the Politics of Presidential Mercy
Jeffrey Toobin
Feb 2025 · Simon and Schuster
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About this audiobook
From New York Times bestselling author and CNN legal commentator Jeffrey Toobin comes a timely exploration of the most controversial presidential pardon in American history—Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon—and its profound implications for our current political landscape.
In this deeply reported narrative, Jeffrey Toobin recreates the behind-the-scenes political melodrama during the tumultuous period leading up to and following Nixon’s resignation. The narrative features a rich cast of characters—including Alexander Haig, Nixon’s last chief of staff, who pushed for the pardon, and a young Justice Department lawyer named Antonin Scalia, who provided the legal justification. The Pardon also introduces you to a largely forgotten figure, Benton Becker, the Washington lawyer sent personally by Ford to negotiate the pardon with Nixon. Becker’s fresh reflections provide a startling and cinematic picture of the former President—who proved a master manipulator even in exile.
Ford’s shocking decision to pardon Nixon was widely criticized at the time, yet it has since been reevaluated as a healing gesture for a divided country even by former critics. Toobin anticipates the next turn in the debate by arguing that Ford’s pardon was a disaster—an unwise gift to an undeserving recipient, and one that creates an unsettling precedent that is likely to be tested by the next occupant of the Oval Office.
The Pardon is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the complex dynamics of power within the highest office in the nation, and the implications of presidential mercy.
In this deeply reported narrative, Jeffrey Toobin recreates the behind-the-scenes political melodrama during the tumultuous period leading up to and following Nixon’s resignation. The narrative features a rich cast of characters—including Alexander Haig, Nixon’s last chief of staff, who pushed for the pardon, and a young Justice Department lawyer named Antonin Scalia, who provided the legal justification. The Pardon also introduces you to a largely forgotten figure, Benton Becker, the Washington lawyer sent personally by Ford to negotiate the pardon with Nixon. Becker’s fresh reflections provide a startling and cinematic picture of the former President—who proved a master manipulator even in exile.
Ford’s shocking decision to pardon Nixon was widely criticized at the time, yet it has since been reevaluated as a healing gesture for a divided country even by former critics. Toobin anticipates the next turn in the debate by arguing that Ford’s pardon was a disaster—an unwise gift to an undeserving recipient, and one that creates an unsettling precedent that is likely to be tested by the next occupant of the Oval Office.
The Pardon is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, the complex dynamics of power within the highest office in the nation, and the implications of presidential mercy.
About the author
Jeffrey Toobin, the longtime CNN legal commentator, is the author of ten books, including The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court, The Run of His Life: The People vs. O.J. Simpson, Homegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing Extremism, American Heiress, The Oath, Too Close to Call, and A Vast Conspiracy. A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, he lives with his family in New York.
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