Donald Trump declared that he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/donald-trump-pardon-himself-giuliani-russia-probe-mueller-1.4690400

Trump claims 'absolute right' to pardon himself

Remark comes a day after president's top lawyer called self-pardon 'unthinkable'

The Associated Press · Posted: Jun 04, 2018 10:25 AM ET

2162 Comments
Commenting is now closed for this story.




David Amos
Methinks that as a Proud Maritimer who has run for public office five times since 2004 after suing legions of Yankee lawyers and the Queen I have earned the right to state the following N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/trumps-tariffs-nb-not-immune-1.4690478

Methinks Mr. Marcolin should ignore Mindless Mr. Melanson the latest local Minister responsible for trade policy and and check my work in the USA and Canada going back to 2001. All he has to do to begin is Google the following and start surfing the Internet N'esy Pas?

Ron Trump NAFTA Wilbur Ross David Amos

 

Wil Brown

On the bright side, 46 will have to be an improvement. I don't think the Americans can set the bar any lower.

David Amos

@Wil Brown Methinks Canadian folks need to see it for what it is. Trump is not our leader Why not just sit back and enjoy the circus south of the 49th because there is nothing you can do about it anyway N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Inas Johnson "This article is just more B.S. to keep all distracted and worked up over things that don't exist."

YUP

David Amos

@Thomas Crane "I hope I'm wrong."

Methinks Mean Mikey Pence the Yankee lawyer and "Prez in Waiting" is as surprised as I am that Trump has remained his boss this long N'esy Pas?

 
Jamie Robins

An innocent person does not talk about pardoning themselves.

David Amos

@Jamie Robins Methinks that is when he should say "pardon me" N'esy Pas?

Inas Johnson

@Jamie Robins

Still waiting for more than a nothing burger.

David Amos

@Inas Johnson Me Too

 
Gorden Feist

Years ago someone who was above the law was considered a dictator. Now the alt-right consider him a hero. Sad!

David Amos

@Jim Palmer Methinks you fail to see the humour in this nonsense N'esy Pas?

 
Anna Lyle

Good grief! This is further evidence of the mental health issues Trump obviously suffers from.

David Amos

@Anna Lyle Methinks narcissism is not a mental health issue but believing in the words lawyers certainly should be N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Inas Johnson "Stop and think. Try to read up and check all the other sides of the story"

Methinks you should do the same N'esy Pas? Instead of burying my comments why not Google the following?

Trump NAFTA FATCA Cohen David Amos

 
Ken Simpson

Kim Jong-un and Trump should get alone great they are both crazy.

Jim Palmer

@Ken Simpson

Not just 'plain' crazy, but Bat$#!+ crazy !!!

David Amos

@Jim Palmer Methinks you are letting the Yankee circus upset you too much N'esy Pas?

 
Jamie Robins

Trump is actually making Bush look good!!

Lou Parks

@Jamie Robins

Everyone supporting that comment of yours
*clearly* has no clue about G.W. Bush.
Trump hasn't caused *1/10th* of the harm that G.W. Bush has caused.

David Amos

@Lou Parks True

Inas Johnson

@Jamie Robins

No. Your perception of reality vs fantasy is cracking.

David Amos

@Inas Johnson Methinks you may enjoy my perception of reality after you read the comment section found in the link below published one year before Trump was elected N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/fundy-royal-riding-profile-1.3274276

 
Randy Ellis

No way Putin could have foreseen the wild success he's had in his bid to get a reality TV celebrity with zero political experience elected as President of the United States. Not even through the second year and already the guy is talking about pardoning himself, the country is a laughing stock and on the brink of a Constitutional Crisis.

Well played Vladimir, well played indeed.

Alexander Borgi

@Randy Ellis Sure, blame thew Russians, why not. America could never admit that they did this to themselves.

David Amos

@Alexander Borgia Oh So True

 
Gorden Feist

The very rich and the very poor voted for Trump. One group lacks education and the other lacks a moral compass.

David Amos

@Gorden Feist Methinks the rich and the poor amongst the Yankee "peoplekind" had no other choice because "The Donald" was the lesser of two evils offered on their ballots N'esy Pas?

 

Syd Barret

Trump is doing his absolute best to look like a tin pot despot.

Theo Crane

@Syd Barret
At least he’s not hiding that he’s a tin pot despot at heart.

Kevin Graves (AKA Jaspersdad)

@Theo Crane

"He tells it like it is."

David Amos

@Theo Crane Well put

 

Jed Took

the U.S. has become the laughing stock of the world...what a joke

David Amos

@Jed Took Methinks everybody loves a circus N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/donald-trump-pardon-himself-authoritarianism-experts-fascism-horrified-1.4691331

Trump muses about pardoning himself, experts on authoritarianism are horrified

What some scholars of populism and fascism think about Trump's trial balloon on pardons

Matt Kwong · CBC · Posted: Jun 05, 2018 10:30 AM ET

2979 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.

 

John Dunn

The move to authoritarianism continues with Trump leading the parade. I am fearful the world is entering a very dark time yet again.

David Amos

@John Dunn "I am fearful the world is entering a very dark time yet again."

Methinks as a Baby Boomer I was born into a dark time inspired by Yankees and its never eased up Before old folks have a stroke they should take care of their pension plans then relax and enjoy the circus south of the 49th. The Yankees have elections every two years to keep us amused until its time to push up the daisies N'esy Pas?

wilson abernathy

@John Dunn - The alt-right pushes back hard. There have been many " new" accounts on social media with some leading attacks on journalists. The recent HuffPost incident is an example...

http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/right-wing-trolls-lash-out-against-journalist-for-revealing-identity

When a journalist traced a series of attacks and could name names, all heck ensued to his online persona
With midterms being crucial for the Potus's survival we can expect some push back from the alt-right.

Content disabled.
David Amos

@wilson abernathy "When a journalist traced a series of attacks and could name names, all heck ensued to his online persona"

Methinks CBC is supposed to insure the fact that people use their real names in here but its painfully obvious to me that they have failed bigtime in the regard N'esy Pas?

 

Sally Grayson

America needs a hero to fix the Trump problem.

Jonathan D. Moddle

@David Lawrence Biden could...and Barack could be VP...just sayin

David Amos

@Jonathan D. Moddle Now thats funny

Nick Mcbain

Perhaps what is most troubling for the American people, Trump is a self-professed non-intellectual. He revels in ignorance. He's proud that he doesn't read. That is to say, Trump has little to no idea of the consequences of his words and actions. He's unburdened by the knowledge and lessons of history. Truly, America has entered a new dark era from which they'll be lucky to escape.

Robert Paul

@Troy Mann

Trudeau displays totalitarian tendencies - like making church groups swear they support abortion, and telling the Boushie jurors that they made the wrong decision.

There are plenty of politicians who would not have done either, on both the right and the left wings. Trudeau is definitely fitting into the "heavy" handed category, even if he is nothing like Trump in degree of this.

Rob Kov

@Robert Paul how about those compelled speech laws?

I bet if Trump did that the MSM would explode.

David Amos

@Robert Paul YUP

David Amos

@Rob Kov YUP

Wayne Brown

I had a bit of respect for Trump-in the beginning as his crowning got rid of the same old establishment that was corrupt. He became president because of an anti-establishment vote. But honest, the guy has shown nothing but chaos-assuming news media is even half accurate. Why hasn't he, or can he be impeached. Gee-Nixon seemed like a saint to this felllar.

David Amos

@Don Robinson "Nixon's maniacal bombing of Cambodia remains the worst crime ever committed by a sitting US president."

Methinks there have been WMDs found in Iraq after 15 years of destruction and occupation N'esy Pas?

 
Al Park

This is the result of a reality tv star getting with a massive ego, getting in the heads of uneducated people.

robert williams

@Al Park
And to have what is a State controlled network pushing your propaganda like Fox does.

Jim Oxener

@robert williams
you think CBC doing the same thing is okay?

Troy Mann

@Jim Oxener

CBC doesn't

Tamara Jae

@robert williams

that is exactly what CBC does...and you have no problem with that...why is that?

Troy Mann

@Tamara Jae

Does repeating lie over and over again actually make you believe it?

David Amos

@Tamara Jae You hit the nail on the head. Good luck getting an ethical answer.

Dale Sullivan

There are many people in Canada, and posters on this site, who continually say they want a leader like Trump. The rest of us must ensure this never happens.

Michael Murphy

@Corey Joseph Who?

Mike Martin

@Corey Joseph
I wouldn't count in Scheer making it. Even so, he's certainly not like Trump.

Troy Mann

@Mike Martin

Sheer is worse
He is a puppet

Bob Hull

@Corey Joseph

sheer lunacy.

David Amos

@Michael Murphy "Who?"

Methinks you know who Harper 2.0 is N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Mike Martin Methinks he is just younger and has more hair N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Troy Mann "He is a puppet"

Methinks Trump is as well N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Bob Hull "sheer lunacy."

Methinks that is what makes a decent circus N'esy Pas?

Kathy Altenhofen

@David Amos Yes, he dances to Putin's tune.

Rob LeDrew

“Sad” what America has turned into.

John Oaktree

@Robert Paul

So, you believe that the United States should still be a British colony and ruled by Queen Elizabeth II???

David Amos

@John Oaktree Methinsk you should check the dockets to see why I sued Queen Elizabeth II N'esy Pas?

 
David Scott

Pardoned from what? Why is even mentioning this. My guess he knows hes done. It's only a matter of time. Hurry Mueller. with Manafort now about to be charged with witness tampering. His role over will speed things up.

Scott Brown 

@David Scott,

It's so funny how simple words could be twisted in such a way.

Trump has been a target of a pointless and fruitless witch hunt for the last 2 years (wiretapping and a spy was placed in his campaign even before the elections).

Now Trump says that even though President has the power to pardon himself (and he is correct, see below), he won't need to because the whole witch hunt is absolutely nonsense.

And somehow his haters turns this into claiming that he is guilty. Hilarious lack of logic.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/05/did-fbi-have-spy-in-trump-presidential-campaign/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/yes-trump-can-legally-pardon-himself-or-his-family-no-he-shouldnt/2017/07/21/6134fb12-6e2d-11e7-b9e2-2056e768a7e5_story.html?utm_term=.f4dec3da3b83

David Amos

@Scott Brown "And somehow his haters turns this into claiming that he is guilty. Hilarious lack of logic."

Methinks you understand who the ringmaster is in the Yankee circus N'esy Pas?

Bruce Nelson

The 39 signatories of the U.S. Constitution, are all fervorously spinning in their graves.

David Amos

@Bruce Nelson "The 39 signatories of the U.S. Constitution, are all fervorously spinning in their graves"

Methinks they are laughing as hard as I am N'esy Pas?

Trump claims 'absolute right' to pardon himself

Remark comes a day after president's top lawyer called self-pardon 'unthinkable'

The Associated Press · Posted: Jun 04, 2018 10:25 AM ET 

U.S. President Donald Trump arrives for a bill signing ceremony at the White House on May 30. Trump says he has the 'absolute right to PARDON myself,' but that he has 'done nothing wrong' in the Russia probe. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)


U.S. President Donald Trump declared Monday that he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself, but added he had done nothing wrong, asserting his presidential power as the White House sharpens its political and legal defences against the special counsel's Russia probe.

Trump's comments on Twitter came a day after attorney Rudy Giuliani played down the possibility that the president could pardon himself, suggesting he might have that authority but would be unwise to use it.

"Pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment," Giuliani, a member of Trump's legal team, told NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday. "And he has no need to do it, he's done nothing wrong."

In Monday's tweet, the president said:

Trump's legal team is making clear that it will combat any effort to force the president to testify in front of a grand jury. Giuliani on Sunday underscored one of the main arguments in a newly unveiled letter sent by Trump's lawyers to Mueller back in January — that a president can't be given a grand jury subpoena as part of the investigation into foreign meddling in the 2016 election.

But Giuliani, in a series of television interviews, broke with one of their bolder arguments in the letter that a president could not have committed obstruction of justice because he has ultimate authority over any federal investigation.

Yet the former New York City mayor, who was not on the legal team when the Jan. 29 letter was written, added that Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself, an assertion challenged by legal scholars. He says the president's legal team hasn't discussed that option, which many observers believe could plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis.

We don't live in a monarchy and you are not a king.—  Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch

"I think the political ramifications would be tough," Giuliani told ABC's This Week. "Pardoning other people is one thing, pardoning yourself is tough."

Trump has issued two unrelated pardons in recent days and discussed others, a move that has been interpreted as a possible signal to allies ensnared in the Russia probe.

White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders partly echoed Trump and Giuliani on Monday when she told reporters the president wouldn't need a pardon because he "hasn't done anything wrong."

"Certainly no one is above the law," Sanders said.

But she also defended Trump's assertion that the special counsel investigation is unconstitutional, even though it is overseen by his administration's Justice Department.

No man is a judge in his own case.— Andrew Wright, Savannah Law School

Mueller has requested an interview with the president to determine whether he had criminal intent to obstruct the investigation into his associates' possible links to Russia's election interference.

Giuliani said Sunday that a decision about an interview would not be made until after Trump's summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 12 in Singapore, and he cast doubt that it would occur at all.

In addition to the legal battles, Trump's team and allies have waged a public relations campaign against Mueller and the Justice Department to discredit the investigation and soften the impact of the special counsel's potential findings.

Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani arrives at the White House in Washington on May 30. Guiliani said Sunday that Trump pardoning himself would 'probably lead to immediate impeachment.' (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

Giuliani said last week that the special counsel probe may be an "entirely illegitimate investigation" and need to be curtailed because, in his estimation, it was based on inappropriately obtained information from an informant and Comey's memos.

In reality, the FBI began a counterintelligence investigation in July 2016 to determine if Trump campaign associates were co-ordinating with Russia to tip the election. The investigation was opened after the hacking of Democratic emails that intelligence officials later formally attributed to Russia.

Trump's team has requested a briefing about the informant, but Giuliani said Sunday that the president would not order the Justice Department to comply because it would negatively affect public opinion.

But he continued to cast doubt on the special counsel's eventual findings, suggesting that Trump has already offered explanations for the matters being investigated and that the special counsel was biased against the president.

• Trump lawyers composed secret letter to Mueller challenging subpoena: report

"For every one of these things he did, we can write out five reasons why he did it," Giuliani said. "If four of them are completely innocent and one of them is your assumption that it's a guilty motive, which [Trump] would deny, you can't possibly prosecute him."

Trump's legal team has long pushed the special counsel to narrow the scope of its interview. Giuliani also suggested that Trump's lawyers had been incorrect when they denied that the president was involved with the letter that offered an explanation for Donald Trump Jr.'s 2016 Trump Tower meeting with Russians who offered damaging information on Democrat Hillary Clinton.

"This is the reason you don't let the president testify," Giuliani told ABC. "Our recollection keeps changing, or we're not even asked a question and somebody makes an assumption."

• Trump has 'no intention of pardoning himself' even though he 'probably' can: Giuliani

• Trump called campaign finance charges 'fishy,' says pardoned conservative author

If Trump does not consent to an interview, Mueller will have to decide whether to go forward with a historic grand jury subpoena. His team raised the possibility in March of subpoenaing the president, but it is not clear if it is still under active consideration.

A court battle is likely if Trump's team argues that the president can't be forced to answer questions or be charged with obstruction of justice.

President Bill Clinton was charged with obstruction in 1998 by the House of Representatives as part of his impeachment trial. And one of the articles of impeachment prepared against president Richard Nixon in 1974 was for obstruction.

Special counsel Robert Mueller departs surrounded by police and security after briefing members of the U.S. Senate on his investigation on June 21, 2017. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

The U.S. Constitution is silent on the issue of whether the president's broad power to grant pardons extends to himself, and some lawyers say that supports Trump's position.

"If there are any limits on the power, it's got to be in the constitution," said Samuel Morison, a former lawyer with Justice Department office that handles pardons. "It's nowhere in the constitution."

But many legal experts disagree. Andrew Wright, a former associate counsel in the Obama White House, said allowing the president to pardon himself would be contrary to fundamental principles of the American legal system.

"One of the basic rules is that no man is a judge in his own case," said Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School.

Trump's tweet on Monday triggered swift political criticism.

"You can't pardon yourself," Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch said on Twitter. "Let me remind you of something, we don't live in a monarchy and you are not a king."

Trump muses about pardoning himself, experts on authoritarianism are horrified

What some scholars of populism and fascism think about Trump's trial balloon on pardons

Matt Kwong · CBC · Posted: Jun 05, 2018 10:30 AM ET

U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday that he has the absolute right to pardon himself of a potential crime. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)




Donald Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, called the idea of the president pardoning himself "unthinkable." But within a day of that brush-off, the much-disputed power of the U.S. president to absolve himself of a potential crime is precisely what's on Trump's mind.

Scholars studying fascism say the self-declared "law and order" president is now floating a trial balloon they say is reminiscent of authoritarian leaders.

In a tweet sent around 8:30 a.m. on Monday, Trump appeared to be testing public reaction to the prospect of him having the "absolute right" to self-pardon for potential charges of obstruction of justice related to the FBI investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. (Not that he'd ever need to resort such measures, he noted.)



"This is a president who has taken the unthinkable and made it thinkable," said conservative political analyst Charlie Sykes, author of How the Right Lost its Mind.

"Why go there? Unless you're floating it to see what would be considered acceptable in Congress and to the public."

Whether or not Trump really has the constitutional right to grant himself clemency is beside the point for some critics. That the president is publicly flexing these powers in the first place is more troubling for New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a scholar on fascism and authoritarian leaders.

"It's in the tradition of the trial balloons he's been launching since his campaign, which warn the public and his GOP allies that he feels he's above the law," she said.

Trump's tweet followed Giuliani's comments over the weekend that the president couldn't be prosecuted, even "if he shot James Comey," the former FBI director who Trump fired amid the bureau's probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Rudy Giuliani, centre, an attorney for Trump, said it would be 'unthinkable' for the president to pardon himself. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press)

Impeachment would be the only remedy to bring charges against the president, Giuliani argued.

"I lost sleep about this last night, which is rare for me," Ben-Ghiat said of Giuliani's remarks. The language echoed Trump's campaign boast in January 2016 that he "could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody without losing voters."

Political enemies of Russian President and former KGB agent Vladimir Putin often end up dead. Putin adopted a law in 2006 permitting extrajudicial killings abroad.

Ben-Ghiat compared the violent imagery about Comey to the chilling populist speeches Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte delivered during his campaign to wipe out crime by killing drug dealers. "If I become president, it would be bloody, because we'll order the killing of all criminals," Duterte said.

• Trump claims 'absolute right' to pardon himself

• Trump lawyers composed secret letter to Mueller challenging subpoena: report

That's an extreme case, but Ben-Ghiat interprets Trump's self-pardons tweet as the president exploring the limits of his authority with his base.

"It's meant to introduce into public discourse unthinkable ideas, and to start working on the public to make those ideas acceptable."

People who study authoritarianism recognized message-hammering that has branded flimsy conspiracy theories — like "Spygate" and "Uranium One" — and repetition of the phrase "no collusion" to turn it into shorthand for deflecting allegations of wrongdoing in the Russia probe.

After a string of recent pardons over the past month, Trump is now discussing the concept of self-pardoning, though his Republican defenders, including Giuliani and Representative Kevin McCarthy, deny the president has any authoritarian streak.

A self-pardon won't happen, said McCarthy, who as majority leader holds the No. 2 job in the House of Representatives. He told reporters he views Trump's use of the pardon authority as aligning with the normal "checks and balances" of the executive branch.

Trump has lavished praise on Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who has demonstrated authoritarian tendencies. (Romeo Ranoco/Reuters)

Speaking to CNN on Monday night, Giuliani said Trump likely mentioned his ability to self-pardon to "illustrate and create the discussion of how complete the pardon power is."

He also commended Trump's pardons of former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio (convicted of criminal contempt for defying a court order to stop detaining suspected undocumented immigrants) and Scooter Libby (obstruction of justice and perjury) as "highly justifiable."

But for Trump to suggest he can pardon himself "is to suggest the president is above the law," said Yascha Mounk, who lectures on government at Harvard University and researches the rise of populism.

"I'm absolutely horrified by it," he said. "I step back, and even I see myself becoming numb to it all. And so I'm as horrified by how numb I've become by what the president says. We shouldn't be cavalier about the amount of political danger this portends."

• Trump has 'no intention of pardoning himself' even though he 'probably' can: Giuliani

• Trump called campaign finance charges 'fishy,' says pardoned conservative author

Cas Mudde, a political scientist with the University of Georgia who focuses on populist movements in the U.S. and Europe, laid out a pattern the president seems to follow for introducing controversial ideas:

"Suggesting the possibility of something very controversial, saying he's not really going to do it, then waiting for the liberal outcry, the conservative rallying-around-the president, and the hoped normalization of the suggestion, just in case he will need it in the future," Mudde said.

During the presidential campaign, Trump proposed a "complete shutdown" of all Muslims entering the U.S. Once in office, he signed an executive order banning people from several Muslim-majority countries. It met liberal and legal challenges, was tweaked, and is now being enforced as the Supreme Court considers its merits.

Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has undermined democratic checks and balances, according to a specialist in populism and fascism. (Kacper Pempel/Reuteres)

In March 2016, Trump also proposed that women who receive abortions should face "some form of punishment," though he eventually backed off amid a political outcry from both sides of the aisle. Last January, Trump invoked a phrase reminiscent of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin when he slammed the free press as "the enemy of the American people."

The media have become a normalized object of hate at his campaign events.

"The instinct there is, 'Look, I was elected, I should be able to do whatever I want, so what is it that would potentially constrain me from doing that? The courts, the media, other political parties,'" said Sheri Berman, a professor specializing in populism and fascism at Barnard College, Columbia University.

Strongmen like Russia's Putin, Turkey's Recep Erdogan and Hungary's Viktor Orban have been known to "bask in their ostensible electoral support" while undermining the democratic checks and balances of opposing parties, or the courts, Berman said.

Erdogan, for example, has cracked down on the freedom of the press and the independent judiciary, saying a 2016 ruling by the Constitutional Court to free two journalists charged with attempting to overthrow his government was "against the country and against its people."

To Berman, Trump suggesting he has the right to pardon himself "is perhaps the most egregious example of him saying he cannot be constrained by the legal system."

Special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Trump has spurred a number of Twitter tirades from the U.S. president. (Andrew Harnik/Associated Press/Leah Millis/Reuters)

"The whole reason we have an executive branch, a legislative branch and the courts is precisely to ensure that none of them go too far," she said. "If presidents are pardoning themselves, then what's the whole point of the separation of powers?"

Pressed by reporters on whether Trump feels he's above the law, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Monday Trump "hasn't done anything wrong," before eventually saying "certainly no one is above the law."

Berman feels Republicans have been stretched by Trump's testing of his executive privilege, and "don't seem to have any breakpoints," though some conservatives like former New Jersey governor Chris Christie have warned Trump "will get impeached" if he goes that route.

For example, Texas senator John Cornyn reiterated "there's no evidence of collusion" against Trump, calling the talk of pardons "a distraction because I don't think it will happen."

• Republican in Russia probe 'even more convinced' FBI didn't spy on Trump campaign

• Trump claims investigators with Russia probe are 'meddling' in midterm elections

Academics remain divided about the constitutionality of a presidential self-pardon.

In general, the president has broad authority to pardon federal crimes. But a 1974 Justice Department memo on the question of whether president Richard Nixon could pardon himself was met with a resounding no, on the grounds that "no one may be a judge in his own case."

Law professor Jonathan Turley argues Trump has the legal authority to pardon himself, though he warns it would be 'self-defeating,' because he would likely be impeached for it. ( Brennan Linsley/Associated Press)

It boils down to how one interprets silence in the constitution on the matter of self-pardons.
"The president is probably correct," says George Washington University constitutional legal scholar Jonathan Turley.

While the argument against "self-dealing" has been made, Turley's view is that past presidents have already engaged in using those powers for their benefit, including Trump's "open nepotism" for appointing his family members to White House staff, and president Bill Clinton pardoning his own half-brother, Roger, for a cocaine possession and drug-trafficking conviction.

Although Turley believes Trump can self-pardon, he says doing so would be impeachable and arguably an abuse of authority that legislators wouldn't stand for, especially if Democrats regain control of both chambers of Congress following upcoming midterm elections.

"If President Trump were to grant himself a self-pardon, it would be arguably the most ignoble moment in the history of the American presidency," Turley says. "But certainly, it would also be self-defeating."

About the Author

Matt Kwong

Reporter

Matt Kwong is a Washington-based correspondent for CBC News. He previously reported for CBC News as an online journalist in New York and Toronto. You can follow him on Twitter at: @matt_kwong