Trump’s Self-Pardon Fantasy Will Meet a Harsh Reality Benjamin Wittes
I don’t believe a self-pardon’s gonna fly.
I don’t mean to say that President Donald Trump will not attempt it. He very well might.
I also don’t mean to say that it won’t be a big deal if and when he does attempt it. It will be a very big deal.
I mean, rather, that a self-pardon will not materially decrease the likelihood of his attempted prosecution by the Justice Department after he leaves office, and may even
increase the chances of his indictment.
Lawfare
I don’t believe a self-pardon’s gonna fly.
I don’t mean to say that President Donald Trump will not attempt it. He very well might.
I also don’t mean to say that it won’t be a big deal if and when he does attempt it. It will be a very big deal.
I mean, rather, that a self-pardon will not materially decrease the likelihood of his attempted prosecution by the Justice Department after he leaves office, and may even
increase the chances of his indictment.
More important, it will probably not result in legal recognition that the pardon power extends to presidential self-forgiveness. To the contrary, if Trump does attempt a self-pardon in the face of a compelling federal criminal case against him, the result is likely to be Supreme Court rejection of the self-pardon’s legality.
POLITICO
Get the Transition Playbook newsletter Email
Sign Up
By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or updates from POLITICO and you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service. You can unsubscribe at any time and you can contact us here. This sign-up form is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Presented by Uber Driver Stories
Welcome to POLITICO’s 2020 Transition Playbook, your guide to one of the most consequential transfers of power in American history.
When President-elect
MARK GITENSTEIN to
enlist his help.
The Biden transition announced months later, in September, that Gitenstein Biden’s chief counsel on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the ‘80s was part of an amorphous transition “advisory board” with 14 other people.
OLC Releases Opinions on the President’s Obligations Related to NAFTA and the Open Skies Treaty
The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) recently released two separate opinions concerning the president’s authority to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the 120-day advance notice the president was supposed to provide to Congress when withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty in May.
The opinion detailing the president’s authority to withdraw from NAFTA, authored on Oct. 17, 2018, found that the president “may lawfully withdraw the United States from [NAFTA] without the need for any further legislative action.” OLC notes that when Congress approved NAFTA, it “authorized the President to carry out the agreement and imposed no limits on his authority to withdraw.” You can read the opinion here and below.