General Discussion

When Ford pardoned Nixon, the pardon applied to "all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974." In other words, the crimes don't have to be specified or even charged, and they can include any that the person may have committed or participated in. If a president has an actual enemies list and has specifically threatened to prosecute the people on it, pardoning them in this fashion is probably the only way to protect them, even though they haven't actually committed any crimes - "may have" is good enough. And no, accepting a pardon doesn't constitute a confession; that's a common misinterpretation of Burdick v. United States.