Let’s be honest, presidents haven’t had a stellar record in recent history when it comes to letting some crooks off the hook. From Bill Clinton to Joe Biden, there has always been some controversy when it comes to how presidents have used their authority for pardons and commutations. Not surprisingly, Donald Trump’s abuse of these powers is on another level altogether… and it now appears as though there is a new way for some of his fellow felons to escape justice: agreeing to testify against people he wants to see locked up.

First, to put things in context, here’s a bit of history that illustrates that the pardon power should perhaps be taken away from presidents.

Bill Clinton, for example, pardoned the appropriately named Marc Rich, a wealthy fugitive from justice whose ex-wife made some large donations to the Clinton Presidential Center and Hillary Clinton’s Senate campaign. His successor, George W. Bush, commuted the sentence of Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff Scooter Libby.

While Barack Obama’s pardons were relatively scandal-free, Donald Trump’s were not. In his first term, he pardoned Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the father of his son-in-law Charles Kushner, his campaign manager (Paul Manafort), the CEO of his campaign (Steve Bannon), and a key adviser (Roger Stone), as well as a few others (Michael Flynn and Dinesh D’Souza).

Next, Joe Biden pardoned his own son after saying he wouldn’t do so, and he also issued preemptive pardons, which seems like a terrible idea.

Not to be outdone, Trump began his second term by pardoning the January 6 insurrectionists, some people who gave him money, and a couple of reality TV celebrities. In doing so, he not only failed to keep some bad people behind bars; he also deprived the victims of their respective crimes (and US taxpayers) of $1.3 billion in restitution and fines, according to a report from Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.

As though all that were not bad enough, there is now a new “get out of jail free” card for hardened criminals.

According to the Washington Post, the Department of Justice has offered the sweetest of sweetheart deals to a three-time felon in exchange for his testimony implicating Kilmar Abrego Garcia for participating in a human smuggling ring.

As you probably know, Abrego Garcia is the man who was illegally deported to his native El Salvador. Instead of facilitating his return to the US as ordered by a federal judge (an order that the Supreme Court upheld unanimously), the Trump administration then pretended that there was no way to bring him back and instead painted him as a gang leader and terrorist to justify their actions.

That, like just about everything else we hear from the White House, was a lie. As it turns out, getting Abrego Garcia back only required an indictment for human trafficking in Tennessee… an indictment that was supposed to show that the initial deportation, while illegal, was justified.

Since then, however, there is mounting evidence that the indictment itself is a bit shady as well.

For example, Ben Schrader, a high-ranking federal prosecutor in Tennessee, resigned on the day the indictment was handed down.

In a LinkedIn post, he said at the time that it was a privilege to work in a job “where the only job description I’ve ever known is to do the right thing, in the right way, for the right reasons.”

Then, last week, a magistrate judge in the case cast serious doubt on the government’s case and ordered Abrego Garcia to be released (while acknowledging that he would probably be detained right away). Specifically, she said in her ruling that the cooperating witnesses the government presented all had to gain something from their testimony.

“The Court gives little weight to this hearsay testimony – double hearsay through Special Agent Joseph’s testimony – of the first male cooperator, a two-time, previously-deported felon, and acknowledged ringleader of a human smuggling operation, who has now obtained for himself an early release from federal prison and delay of a sixth deportation by providing information to the government,” the judge wrote.

But things seem even worse than that.

On Sunday, the Post reported that, in return for his testimony, a three-time felon was released from prison.

This man, Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, seems a lot more like the kind of guy the US ought to be deporting to another country. According to the Post, he drunkenly fired shots in a Texas community (and has pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct” in the case) and has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegal re-entry into the US.

However, because he is willing to testify against Abrego Garcia, a man who has made the Trump administration look bad and therefore has to be painted in as bad a light as possible, this criminal has now been released early from prison to a halfway house and, instead of being deported, he gets to stay in the US for at least another year.

None of this should inspire confidence in the government’s case against Abrego Garcia. Instead, it increasingly looks as though the Department of Justice is conjuring up charges against him to fit the narrative it has been feeding to the nation.

Back when the indictment was first announced, Attorney General Pam Bondi proudly stated that “this is what American justice looks like.”

We are afraid that she is right. This is what American justice looks like under Trump… and it’s not a pretty sight.