Will be interesting to see what Trump pardons Michael Flynn for. Trump does not know the entirety of Flynn& #39;s federal criminal exposure. Flynn might not even be specifically aware of the entirety of his federal criminal exposure.

Re: pre-emptive pardons: Except for amnesties (e.g. Carter& #39;s draft resister pardon), the only so-called preemptive pardon that did NOT involve charged crimes was Ford& #39;s pardon of Nixon. Ford pardoned Nixon for all federal crimes during his presidency, a five year period.

But, remember, the validity of the Nixon pardon has never been litigated. And, as then NY Rep Liz Holtzman and others have argued, a strong argument can be made that a pardon that fails to specify crimes pardoned is invalid. We should not assume the validity of a blanket pardon.