Donald Trump’s pardon endgame is upon us
The optimists within Donald Trump’s base, and the pessimists within the Resistance, have long insisted that in the end Trump would magically make the entire Russia scandal go away by pardoning everyone involved. Now that Trump and his people firmly have their backs against the wall in the scandal, Trump’s allies are predictably calling on him to start trying the pardon route – but it’s not that simple.
Some prominent conservatives are now publicly calling on Trump to pardon Michael Flynn for instance, even though he’s already pleaded guilty and cut a plea deal, according to a Politico report (link). There are a couple of problems here. Flynn has already provided testimony and evidence against Trump. So if Trump wanted to protect himself by pardoning Flynn, the time to do that would have been three months ago. That ship sailed.
There’s another problem: Trump may not even be able to do it. Because it’s never been tried, there is no legal precedent as to whether a siting president can pardon his alleged co-conspirators, his family members, or himself. If Trump were to go this route, the Supreme Court would have to rule whether or not these kinds of pardons are constitutional. Because Flynn has presumably provided evidence that he conspired with Trump to commit crimes, it would be extraordinarily difficult for Trump to successfully argue in court that his pardon of Flynn wouldn’t be a crime in and of itself.
In addition, if Donald Trump were to begin trying to pardon people like Michael Flynn, or particularly if he began trying to pardon his own family or himself, it would be a politically fatal move. That’s the kind of thing you only try on your way out the door if your presidency is already sunk. Even if Trump does try to pardon everyone on the day he resigns, the courts might strike it all down. In any case, Trump can’t pardon anyone on state-level crimes, and once he’s out of office, he can be put on trial for the numerous state-level financial crimes he’s committed.
