How US presidential pardons are being used as a political tool

On the day of his inauguration, US President Donald Trump issued a mass pardon covering over a thousand people charged or convicted in connection with the January 6 riots. Trump has gone on to issue hundreds of other pardons, many of them controversial.  Law professor Saikrishna Prakash has looked at the use and abuse of presidential pardons, and says the law should be changed to restrict their power. 

• Guest: Saikrishna Prakash, Distinguished Professor of Law and Miller Center Senior Fellow at the University of Virginia and author of The Presidential Pardon: the short clause with a long, troubled history, published by Harvard University Press.
• Producer: Ann Arnold