Donald Trump’s new Trump-Russia pardon con game

| 9:15 am EDT June 9, 2018
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For a few different legal and practical reasons, it’s not possible for Donald Trump to magically pardon his way out of the Trump-Russia scandal. Yet despite how relatively straightforward the pardon landscape may be, and how clear it’s become that he’s not willing to stick his neck out for anyone involved, Trump is still trying to string along his most gullible underlings. His pardon con game has just taken a new turn.

Paul Manafort was arrested more than half a year ago, and it’s been clear for awhile now that he’s highly likely to spend the rest of his life in prison. Things took a particularly ugly turn for him yesterday when he was charged with obstruction of justice for trying to tamper with the witnesses against him. This will all but ensure that he goes to prison while awaiting trial, and that his remaining assets are frozen. Naturally, the media is asking Trump if he’s now planning to pardon Manafort and/or Michael Cohen.

Donald Trump’s reply: “I haven’t thought about any of it. It’s certainly far too early to be thinking about that … They haven’t been convicted of anything. There’s nothing to pardon.” Nope, wrong answer. It’s actually too late. We already know that Trump isn’t planning on pardoning any of his advisers, because if he were, he would have pardoned Michael Flynn and Rick Gates before they cut plea deals and testified against him.

If you’re Paul Manafort and your life is already over, or if you’re Michael Cohen and your life is about to be over, maybe you’re desperate enough to let Donald Trump string you along like this. But those pardons are never, ever coming. The courts would likely strike down Trump’s pardons of his alleged co-conspirators as unconstitutional. Even if they did hold up, these advisers will face state level charges that can’t be pardoned. And if the state charges somehow fell through, the pardoned advisers would face no legal jeopardy and would be required to testify against Trump. Obviously, it’s not happening. Contribute to Palmer Report