Trump Intends to Forgive Himself Ahead of Stepping Down as US President
US President Donald Trump is reportedly considering pardoning himself before stepping down on January 20. Towards the end of his term of office, the 74-year-old president has issued a series of pardons, especially for those closest to him. Because of this, news emerged that Trump thought the authority of forgiveness could also apply to himself.
If true, then this is certainly the first time an active president of "Uncle Sam's Country" has been able to grant clemency for himself. According to a US media report in the New York Times, the Republican US President told his staff he intended to forgive himself. The report surfaced after the Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi called on the president to immediately be removed from the White House. Pelosi was furious because the president was thought to be most responsible for the riots at the Capitol Building, Wednesday (6/1/2021). At that time, five people died in the riot. Four of them are Trump supporters and one is a policeman. Referring to The Times report, the president has repeatedly voiced the potential to forgive himself since the 2020 US Presidential Election.
Reported by the Daily Mirror Thursday (7/1/2021), at that time he had asked what political and legal consequences would be received if he forgives himself. Speculation also escalated, because he did not need to keep a secret regarding using this authority while he was in office. He threw it out in June 2018, when he was under investigation for allegedly asking for Russian help to win the 2016 US presidential election. "As some experts have said, I have the absolute right to PLEASE FORGIVE myself. But why do it if I'm innocent?" asked him.
Asha Rangappa, senior lecturer at Yale University in her review in The Washington Post, said Trump was walking into a trap if he forgives him. Rangappa explained that all this time the president could not be touched by the law because of the 1973 Ministry of Justice Memorandum. This memorandum prohibits the current president from being investigated, because it is considered to make him not focus on leading the country. "Self-pardon effectively declares that Trump is above the law, which means he is challenging the legitimacy of the law," he explained. Traditionally, US presidents used to pardon innocent people, or go to prison on charges that no longer count as crimes.
