“It’s completely plausible to be arrested for the same underlying acts on the state level as on the federal and to be pardoned on the federal level, but not the state,” said Bernadette Meyler, a law professor and associate dean at Stanford University. “The presidential pardon power under Article Two (of the Constitution) covers only federal offenses, so it extends to someone’s liability within the federal government.”

“That was saying that, yes, there can be separate state and federal prosecutions,” Meyler said.

The move to rearrest Fowler is possible both because of the Supreme Court ruling and because the federal pardon power doesn’t cover state offenses, Meyler stressed.

A commutation is a lesser included act of a pardon, Meyler explained.

“A pardon gets rid of all of the conviction and punishment for that conviction, and it can include one offense or multiple offenses,” Meyler said. “A commutation is a reduction in a sentence, so it doesn’t affect the underlying conviction.”

“The Trump pardon, because it can only extend to federal crimes, can’t extend to her state prosecution under Colorado State law, but Trump was kind of claiming that it did,” Meyler said.

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