We’re actually at the point where we’re talking about Donald Trump trying to pardon himself
Donald Trump has already very clearly demonstrated that he’s not willing to even bother trying to pardon any of his former advisers in an attempt at preventing them from testifying against him. Trump had an opportunity to pardon Michael Flynn and Rick Gates before they cut plea deals and testified against him, and he took a pass. The only two questions left are whether Trump will end up trying to pardon his family, and whether he’ll try to pardon himself, on his way down. Remarkably, we’re now actually talking about the latter already.
Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, who was illegally fired by Donald Trump last year, told CNN over the weekend that if Trump tried to pardon himself, it would be “almost self-executing impeachment.” Bharara’s gist was that if Trump tries it, he might as well just pack up and go home, because his presidency would realistically be over. Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told ABC News over the weekend that while Trump isn’t planning to pardon himself, he “probably does” have the ability. GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy then told CNN that he doesn’t think a president should try to pardon himself.
The upshot here is that we’re at a point where we’re actually talking about this. Sure, this is partly the media pushing the narrative, and putting the question to the various players, in order to get them to talk about it. But regardless of their answers, it means we’re now at a point where the mainstream media thinks Trump is so screwed, they’re ready to build the narrative about him trying to pardon himself.
The Supreme Court would have to rule on whether Donald Trump could pardon himself, his family, or his alleged co-conspirators. We’ve already explained why Trump pardoning his co-conspirators would immediately backfire on him. Even if he doesn’t understand that, he may not want to give the court an opportunity to set precedent against him before he takes his last ditch shot at pardoning himself. But the high court ruled a long time ago that accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt – so Bharara is right that Trump would be basically impeaching himself. If Trump pardons himself and it’s struck down, his attempt at pardoning himself could be used as evidence of his guilt once he’s placed on trial.
