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"Those scholars agree, however, that Article II of the Constitution gives Bush much latitude: There is no authority that can stop the president from doing so if he wishes, and there is no outside check or balance to revisit such a decision, however controversial it may be. "The president can do with pardoning power whatever he wants," explained University of Wisconsin Law School professor Stanley Kutler. "It is complete and plenary unto itself."
This is false. In point of fact, James Wilson- one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and one of the first justices to serve on the US Supreme Court, stated that a president using the pardon power to exhonerate a person who committed a crime at his behest would be guilty of an impeachable offense- this at least implying that the act of granting such a pardon in and of itself would be unconstitutional.
I will say, however, that until now we have never had a president who is so likely to misuse the pardon power so blatantly, nor so spineless a Congress as to let him get away with it.
And I see no point in learning the truth if, as a precondition, you cannot do anything about it.
