he will be admitting guilt.
Here's an excerpt from Quora:
"In 1915, the Supreme Court in Burdick v United States ruled that accepting a pardon carries a confession of guilt. Hence many pardon recipients never accept the pardon. This is not the case universally and the Constitution does not say this. I don’t agree with the Court in this matter, however, their word is law…"
- Bob Trammel, Computer Science Professional, BA in Political Science/UCLA
Apologies if this topic has been previously addressed here.