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President pardoning himself? Can it be done?


Zathras
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3 hours ago, Odine said:

Am I mad or does that not seem like a bad idea?

No.  I think pardon powers of presidents and governors need to be reevaluated. 

 

On another note, it looks like the Dems are drafting impeachment papers now: https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/08/politics/house-democrats-impeachment-plans/index.html

 

Just because Trump has only a week and a half left in office does not mean they shouldn't impeach him.  At the very least, that will prevent Trump from pardoning himself, and hopefully from running for president ever again.  At the most (albeit unlikely), we may end up seeing the first president jailed, as Trump should be.  Insurrection is the least of Trump's crimes.   I hope that someone does an investigation on his taxes and to see if he intentionally delayed COVID vaccine research and deployment.

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The men who came up with the Constitution could not forsee all situations that would arise, the idea of a President pardoning himself probably never occurred to them. Thing is they were smart enough to realize they couldn't see into the future and account for everything. Thats why the Constitution can be amended. Ofcourse we've had only one amendment in about the last 50 years. And even that amendment took about 200 years to get ratified. 

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2 hours ago, The Choc said:

The men who came up with the Constitution could not forsee all situations that would arise, the idea of a President pardoning himself probably never occurred to them. Thing is they were smart enough to realize they couldn't see into the future and account for everything. Thats why the Constitution can be amended. Ofcourse we've had only one amendment in about the last 50 years. And even that amendment took about 200 years to get ratified. 

Yeah, they definitely didn’t foresee Trump.

But even if Trump is impeached and convicted, he could still pardon himself if it seems like conviction will happen. He has the full power of the presidency until he’s convicted by the Senate or Biden takes the oath of office. He can’t save himself from impeachment, but he could definitely pardon himself from other crimes / punishment. Then we might see it challenged, if he was also impeached. The best part about impeachment is that he would be barred from any federal office.

Speaking of pardons, will he pardon his private army that attacked the Capitol? 

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If Trump is successfully impeached, the trial itself will likely take place after Trump is no longer president.  I think if Trump attempts to pardon himself before leaving office, we will see a SCOTUS case fast tracked.  

I also raised the question of Trump possibly pardoning his domestic terrorist army, and I think being the coward that he is, and the fact there is a real possibility of impeachment, he won't go there.  Doing that would be used against him in an impeachment trial.

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13 minutes ago, Zathras said:

If Trump is successfully impeached, the trial itself will likely take place after Trump is no longer president.  I think if Trump attempts to pardon himself before leaving office, we will see a SCOTUS case fast tracked.  

I also raised the question of Trump possibly pardoning his domestic terrorist army, and I think being the coward that he is, and the fact there is a real possibility of impeachment, he won't go there.  Doing that would be used against him in an impeachment trial.

No matter what, it’s going to take 16 Republicans to go against him in a trial. He’s losing support, but I don’t know if he’s losing it that quickly. 
 

But it’s a bit of a catch-22 - he has power over the party because he has power over the voters. But by abandoning his rioters, and accepting defeat, he’s losing his hold on voters to some degree.  If he pardons them, it’ll make things worse for him, if he doesn’t, he risks losing part of his base, which makes Republicans less afraid of him.

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