Will Trump try to self-pardon?
President Donald Trump has used his pardon power sparingly, but overwhelmingly to benefit his friends and to protect his own interests. Former George W. Bush Administration official Jack Goldsmith recently analyzed Trump's pardons for Lawfare and concluded that "no president in American history comes close to matching Trump's systematically self-serving use of the pardon power."
Indeed, as Trump nears the end of his first (and perhaps only) term in office, he has wielded the pardon power more boldly than ever. Even by his own established standards of cronyism, Trump broke new ground last week by commuting the sentence of his longtime political adviser Roger Stone -- for crimes that Stone committed to protect Trump.
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Now, there's only one remaining line that Trump has not yet crossed. Brace yourself because it might well happen soon: the first-ever presidential self-pardon. Mechanically, Trump would have to issue such a pardon while he still holds office. And the pardon would need to give him coverage for anything he has done in the past. It would be as if Richard Nixon -- rather than resigning and receiving a blanket pardon from his successor, Gerald Ford -- simply tried to pardon himself on his way out of the White House.
Trump has ample incentive to preemptively save his own hide with a pardon (or, at least, to try). Although current Justice Department policy counsels against indicting a sitting president, the memo setting forth the policy notes repeatedly that a president can be indicted after leaving office. Special Counsel Robert Mueller pointedly stated in his report and Congressional testimony that a president can be indicted after leaving office.
Would a presidential self-pardon be lawful? The short answer is we don't know for sure, because no president has ever tried it. The Constitution itself does not specify either way and there is no statute or case law on the issue. But you can already see the battle lines forming.
Trump certainly believes he can pardon himself. He tweeted in June 2018, "As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?" Indeed, some legal scholars believe that the President can issue a self-pardon, pointing to the text of the Constitution itself -- which places no such limit on the pardon power.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/16/opinions/will-trump-try-to-self-pardon-honig/index.html
I would not put it past him.
= new reply since forum marked as read
That Pence showed that he does, indeed, possess a spine.
Ass Face resigns, with the understanding that Pence will pardon him
Pence decides not to.
Oops.
