President Trump is considering preemptively pardoning upward of 20 close allies and aides before leaving office in January, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr., his daughter Ivanka, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his son-in-law Jared Kushner, and even himself. The possible move is frustrating fellow Republicans, who are worried that such moves could cause massive backfire.
CNN first reported the news, claiming that a source close to the White House is saying that there could be a “flurry” of pardons before Trump leaves office. The President appears to believe that it would be okay to pardon his family members and other associates preemptively, even though no one in the Trump family and his associates have been charged with any crimes.
Some close Trump aides even believe he should pardon himself, a move that would be so unprecedented that it is not known whether such a move would be legal. (Even Richard Nixon chose not to pardon himself, instead leaving it up to Gerald Ford about whether or not to pardon him.)
Reports have shown that meetings have taken place in the White House between the president and some of his close aides, including Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer and head of the Trump campaign’s legal team; his children Donald Jr., Eric, and Ivanka; his son-in-law (and husband to Ivanka) Jared Kushner; and more. Giuliani denied the allegations. This was first reported by The New York Times.
This comes just a week after he decided to pardon former national security advisor Michael Flynn, who was found guilty of lying to the FBI over his contact with the Russian ambassador.
The Department of Justice is hot on Trump’s heels, and they have reported that they are reviewing potential evidence of a secret internal plan to obtain pardons in exchange for “substantial political contribution,” as per a 20-page filing in a U.S. district court. The filing, which was heavily redacted, did not identify any specific people, but the judge said that “senior White House officials” were the target of this plot.
According to the court documents, investigators had been seeking permission for months to review physical evidence, including laptops and drives of various sorts, to look for evidence of a bribery conspiracy. The judge granted the government investigators’ request on Tuesday, indicating that the evidence was not protected in any way.
The pardons are a major public relations problem for Trump. If he so vehemently defends his and his aides and children’s actions, why would he be even considering granting pardons to himself and the parties concerned? Granting mass pardons to close political aides would be viewed by many across the country as a huge scandal. It would solidify the view that Trump believes his children may have committed crimes which need to be pardoned.
And if Trump is seriously considering running in 2024 (which, by now, seems to be a long shot, as he would need to repay billions of dollars in debt and answer to court hearings in various states), mass-pardoning lots of close aides would surely make him unelectable in four years’ time.
In fact, pardoning himself is a move that many legal scholars believe to be illegal. Even though the president has the power, as laid in the Constitution, to pardon as many people as he would like, pardoning himself is something that would be unfathomable. It would mean the the president is above the rule of law, and would allow a president to violate any federal laws—including murder, bribery, and so on—without needing to pay the price for it.
This pardoning scandal is causing yet another rift between many Republicans and Trump, though none have told him to stop (as usual). Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.) has said that “that is in a category that I think you’d probably run into a lot of static.”
In fact, the entire party is still trying to decide how closely they want to link themselves with a president who has just lost the popular vote by seven million votes and the Electoral College. For instance, though Trump has turned off many with his polarizing actions, the GOP desperately needs his loyal, almost cult-like following to vote for Republicans in the January Georgia Senate runoffs and beyond. Many Republican senators do acknowledge that Trump would be stepping on landmines by pardoning his family.
Even so, Trump isn’t fully adamant about pardoning his aides. He is well aware that doing so would enforce the view that many members of his circle are criminals, especially Rudy Giuliani, whose post-election lawsuits for the Trump campaign are increasingly being viewed as scandalous and frivolous. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) has argued that pardons are unnecessary. He said that “I don’t know what he would pardon himself for. He’s not been accused of any crime.” Another Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), has said that he “[doesn’t] know what the others have done wrong that they’d need to be pardoned.”
We’ll have to see how this pardon scandal will play out over the next few weeks. The Electoral College will be voting in just nine days’ time, and Trump only has 46 more days left in office, so he is fast running out of time to do what he wants to do before leaving office.
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