Monday’s use of the presidential pardon by former President Joe Biden and President Trump have stretched the power’s bounds, legal scholars said.

       WASHINGTON—U.S. presidents have held the right to pardon crimes since the country’s founding, and they have exercised it often with political and personal considerations in mind. But legal scholars said the power’s bounds have never been so stretched as Monday, when incoming President Trump used it to relitigate the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and departing President Biden used it not for mercy but as a protective shield.

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