Will Trump Pardon Himself and Family Before Leaving Office? (1 Viewer)

[Moonlight]

I'm definitely of the opinion Trump will pardon himself and family. This may create a question for the Supreme Court to settle if he is prosecuted.

Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon to settle the nation and put Watergate behind us. I do not see Trump resigning which would have given Pence the option.

Also do not see Biden pardoning Trump.

 

[zoonation]

Is a frog’s ### water tight?

 

[Stompin' Tom Connors]

These options should be worded differently.

This is completely uncharted waters, precedent-wise, as no President has ever pardoned themselves (not even Nixon).

Will he try? 100%.

Will he do it? Depends on how that case would be taken up. But I can't see any attempt to pardon himself as being upheld as it violates a fairly accepted legal norm that no one can be the judge in their own case.

Either way it won't stop state prosecutors.

 

[SHIZNITTTT]

Is this even legal?

 

[Todem]

It will never hold up. 

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

Is this even legal?

Hasn’t been tested. Most Constitutional scholars have assumed it couldn’t be done because of the absurd consequences. Only recently have I read an argument that is more firmly grounded in the text of the pardon clause (which I find persuasive).

The argument goes that the Oresident has the power to “grant” reprieves and pardons. 
 

To grant something is to approve someone else’s request. Hence, in law, we refer to a grantor and a grantee. And those are different people. 

 

[Sinn Fein]

Hence, in law, we refer to a grantor and a grantee. And those are different people. 

Do they have to be?  I left my thinking cap upstairs - but could I take property I own, fee simple, and grant myself a life interest, and the remainder to someone else?

And, could I, or someone more eloquent, craft a persuasive argument, that Trump the President, is a different entity than Trump the Individual?

 

[Ramsay Hunt Experience]

Do they have to be?  I left my thinking cap upstairs - but could I take property I own, fee simple, and grant myself a life interest, and the remainder to someone else?

And, could I, or someone more eloquent, craft a persuasive argument, that Trump the President, is a different entity than Trump the Individual?

You’re not granting yourself a life interest. You’re preserving the life interest you already posses by virtue of your fee simple and granting the remainder to the grantee.