Trump: ‘I Have The Absolute Right To PARDON Myself’

TOPSHOT - US President Donald Trump addresses the US Naval Academy graduating class on May 25, 2018 in Annapolis, Maryland. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP) (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images)
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President Donald Trump, who has sworn that there was no collusion between him and Russia, tweeted Monday morning the claim that he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself.

His declaration comes after he’s handed down a handful of politically-charged pardons and speculated about a few more — leading some to suggest that he’s sending a message to federal prosecutors and the associates of his campaign whom they are investigating.

The President’s ability to pardon others for federal crimes is well founded. But whether the President can pardon himself is a more open question among legal scholars.

A letter written by Trump’s attorneys in January to special counsel Robert Mueller that was obtained by the New York Times over the weekend claimed that the President “could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.”

Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani — who replaced Trump lawyer John Dowd, one of authors of the January letter — made similarly bombastic claims while on the Sunday show circuit this weekend.

Giuliani suggested that Trump could pardon himself but that doing so would lead to his impeachment. He also said that the president couldn’t be indicted while in office, telling the Huffington Post Sunday that if Trump “shot [former FBI Director] James Comey” he would be “impeached the next day,” but that an indictment would have to wait until after he was impeached.

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  1. Keep talking, bud. Your innocence sounds very big and strong, believe me.

  2. Doubt he does that. More likely he laughs and looks smug.

  3. I triple-dog dare you, fuckwit.

  4. Maybe we’ll see. Don’t put too much faith in your team of “Constitutional experts”… Meantime, Mueller is saving plenty of evidence to pass along to State AG’s - in case you don’t know, you can’t pardon yourself from State charges (have your experts told you that? Did you tell them they were morons?)

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