Jesse Jackson joined Chris Cuomo as Hillary Clinton's friend who is worse than an enemy

In October of 2016, CNN journalist Christ Cuomo, brother of New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo, during the presidential elections of 2016, drew attention to Hillary Clinton's e-mails that helped Donald Trump's election campaign, and claimed that anybody who reads the alleged e-mails of Hillary Clinton published by WikiLeaks, may be in possession of stolen property

and should instead listen to interpretations of those e-mails by CNN and Chris Cuomo, supporters of Hillary Clinton.

Of course, asserting that e-mails are stolen property of Hillary Clinton or the government is asserting that the e-mails in question are authentic emails of Hillary Clinton - and an admission that Hillary Clinton exposed national security and is unfit as a presidential candidate or president.

Hillary Clinton lost the election, but now that Donald Trump is going to take the White House in January, speculation is abound whether Donald Trump's U.S. Attorney General will investigate and/or prosecute Hillary Clinton in connection with the e-mail scandal.

And, a new friend of Hillary Clinton, who is no better than Chris Cuomo, emerged - the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Speaking to Michigan University students and administration, Rev. Jesse Jackson claimed that President Obama should issue a blanket pardon for Hillary Clinton before he leaves office, as President Ford did for former President Nixon.

There are several problems with such a statement of the Reverend, though.

First, there is the little problem of a Reverend making political speeches and engaging in political activities and the IRS tax-free status of his organizations, if he has any.  If the Reverend presides over any church or non-profit organization - I am not sure whether he is - his church or non-profit may lose its IRS tax-free status because of the Reverend's political speeches.

Second, President Nixon's pardon was given illegally - and so asking President Obama to follow example of President Ford in relation to pardon unconstitutionally given to President Nixon does not portray the Reverend, a civil rights activist, in a good light.

Article II Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution says that the President of the United States "shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment."

"Offenses" of President Nixon for which President Ford pardoned him were impeachable offenses, and, in fact, the House voted in July of 1974 to open impeachment proceedings against President Nixon, so President Ford lacked constitutional power to pardon President Nixon - which, obviously, did not stop him from doing that.

Of course, the pardon was given by President Ford in September of 1974, after President Nixon resigned in August of 1974, and, thus, was arguably outside of the reach of impeachment proceedings.

The next thing is the term "offenses".  The U.S. Constitution does not explicitly give the U.S. President the power to pardon people who have never been charged with a criminal offense against the United States, and the text of the U.S. Constitution cannot be interpreted to give the President the powers that are not explicitly given in the text.

That President Ford did for President Nixon exactly what Reverent Jesse Jackson asks President Obama to do for Hillary Clinton - pardon her where criminal charges were never filed - does not confirm, by an illegal precedent, that such powers actually exist under the U.S. Constitution.

President Nixon dodged impeachment by his resignation and was never formally criminally charged.

Hillary Clinton dodged criminal charges by apparently being cozy with Loretta Lynch and James Comey, and escaped impeachment by not being elected president, but is still not out of the hot water as to future criminal charges - with Donald Trump coming to office and a hard-core U.S. Attorney General likely to be appointed.

Now, the Reverend Jesse Jackson publicly appeals to President Obama to do "the same" for Hillary Clinton as President Ford did for the then-former President Nixon.

Yet, the very text of the presidential pardon power implies that the pardon is for an offense committed against the United States.

And, asking to pardon Hillary Clinton will taint her even more as a pardoned criminal.

As I said, with friends like Chris Cuomo and Jesse Jackson, Hillary Clinton does not really need enemies.