"I would put him above the law": Can Trump forgive himself?
The outgoing president of the United States has publicly said that he has every right to self-pardon and that he would do so only as a preventive measure because he has not committed any crime. According to legal experts, the presidential pardon is only granted to federal crimes and Trump has no pending charges of that type, a scenario that would leave him defenseless for the accusations that he does have at the state level.
Andrew Weissmann, one of the prosecutors who led the impeachment investigation against the outgoing president for obstruction of justice and abuse of power, asked the future attorney general who will be appointed by the president-elect, Joe Biden, to investigate and prosecute Donald Trump for potential federal crimes.
Weissmann was part of the senior team of special prosecutors led by Robert S, Mueller III, that investigated Trump's alleged collusion and obstruction of justice. In his article published in 'The New York Times', he says that a new investigation or criminal trial against Trump will further divide the country and would be a spectacle that will consume the energy of the Joe Biden Administration, “but painful and hard as it may be. for the country, I think the new attorney general should investigate Trump, and if warranted, prosecute him for potential federal crimes. "
According to Weissmann, ample evidence was collected to support the accusation that Trump obstructed justice, adding that it is information that many other prosecutors supported even after the report was published. "Trump cannot now point out that the special prosecutors' investigation did not find collusion with Russia when he obstructed the investigation itself," says the lawyer, adding that it would set a bad precedent if something is not done with the information that has already been collected.
In response to the possibility of an investigation against Trump when his administration ends, 'Fox News' host and commentator Sean Hannity, who is very close to Trump, said in an interview that "if that's what they want and Biden will becomes president, then I would tell the president to forgive himself and to forgive his family. "
Hannity added that Trump needs self-forgiveness because the opposition will continue the "witch hunt." According to Hannity, who has one of the most-watched television shows in the US, the power of presidential forgiveness is absolute and could forgive anyone, including himself.
Trump, on his part, has repeatedly considered self-indulgence, claiming that it is completely legal. "As has been claimed by numerous academics, I have an absolute right to forgive myself, but why would I do so when I have done nothing?" Trump wrote on his Twitter account in 2018.
Sean Hannity: "I'd tell President Trump to pardon yourself and pardon your family" pic.twitter.com/xsJAK0HsCh
— Kat Abu (@abughazalehkat) December 1, 2020
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? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
The mogul also recently shared a trill in which Florida Republican Congressman Mark Gaetz stated that “Trump should forgive Flynn, the Thanksgiving turkey, and everyone from himself (...) if he has it. what to do".
Presidential self-indulgence, an unusual and little explored resource
France 24 spoke with Christopher Sabatini, a professor of public policy at Columbia University, who acknowledged not being sure if the president has the legal capacity to forgive himself. "However, this would be something unprecedented and would also set a bad precedent for the rest of the countries in the world," said Sabatini.
Trump would be the first to try, and he would do so preemptively to avoid possible charges from Democrats in the future. Something that poses an even greater legal challenge because it would have to be evaluated if the self-pardon is valid for possible crimes of which he is accused in the future.
The most recent attempt at self-pardon came by Richard Nixon, who through his attorneys suggested pardoning himself in 1974, when he was on the ropes for the Watergate interception scandal. At the time, the Department of Justice issued an opinion saying that the presidential pardon could not be applied to itself.
By potentially granting himself a pardon, Trump would be violating fundamental principles of American law including conflict of interest. Essentially, by giving it to him, he could commit extremely serious crimes and immediately forgive himself, something that would put him above the law, "said Mark Greenberg, professor of law and philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Additionally, "there is a general principle in American law that no one can be their own judge, which could rule out the option of self-forgiveness, but it has never been tried before, so the theory has never been litigated," he told France. 24 Jeffrey Wright, senior analyst for North America at the political consultancy Eurasia.
Wright argues that, in any event, the issue of self-forgiveness may be an irrelevant debate because "presidential pardons only apply to federal trials and crimes, and the greatest danger Trump faces after leaving the White House is legal proceedings state level, especially those pending in Manhattan and New York state. "
The analyst added to France 24 that Trump can perfectly forgive himself, but if there is no indictment at the federal level, the legality of that presidential pardon will never be put to the test and it would not even reach the courts for debate.
In other words, Trump's presidential pardon would be valid for crimes committed by his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who lied twice in the investigation into the Russian plot; his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who obstructed justice and violated financial and lobbying laws, and his former lawyer Roger Stone, for buying witnesses and false testimony. However, the mechanism could not apply to him because, although he has a long list of accusations about state crimes, there is no accusation yet at the federal level since he was already acquitted during the impeachment process.
Pardons in exchange for donations?
The United States Department of Justice is investigating a criminal scheme to pay bribes in exchange for presidential pardons. This was revealed by documents known in the Federal Court of the District of Columbia. The investigation includes two people who acted as unregistered lobbyists to obtain a presidential pardon from an unidentified person.
The 18 pages of information that were mostly crossed out do not provide information indicating that President Trump was aware of the movements that were being made by lobbyists who were allegedly acting on behalf of White House officials.
This investigation of the presidential pardon bribery scheme comes amid the possibility that Trump will grant a pre-emptive presidential pardon to his three children and his personal attorney, Rudolf Giuliani.
