JUNE 4, 2018
President Trump said on Monday that he has the power to pardon himself, though that assertion is heavily disputed among constitutional scholars and is untested by the courts. – Tom Brenner/The New York Times
WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump said on Monday that he has the power to pardon himself, raising the prospect that he might take extraordinary action to immunize himself from the ongoing Russia investigation even as he asserted that he has “done nothing wrong.”
The president insisted that “numerous legal scholars” have concluded that he has the absolute right to pardon himself, a claim that vastly overstates the legal thinking on the issue. In fact, many constitutional experts dispute Mr. Trump’s position on an issue for which there has been no definitive ruling.
As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong? In the meantime, the never ending Witch Hunt, led by 13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats (& others) continues into the mid-terms!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2018
The president’s assertion came in a morning tweet just a day after Rudolph W. Giuliani, one of his lawyers, told the Huffington Post that Mr. Trump is essentially immune from prosecution while in office, and could even have shot the former F.B.I. director without risking indictment while he was president.
Mr. Giuliani also said over the weekend that the president “probably” has the power to pardon himself, but said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that it would be “unthinkable” for him to do so.
Doing so, Mr. Giuliani said, would “lead to probably an immediate impeachment,” adding that he “has no need to do that. He didn’t do anything wrong.”
Mr. Trump’s statement on Twitter went further than Mr. Giuliani and raises the prospect that the president might try to test the limits of his pardon power if Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel in the Russia investigation, tried to indict him for obstruction of justice in the case. Mr. Mueller has indicated he does not plan to seek an indictment, according to Mr. Giuliani.
In his tweet, Mr. Trump again called the investigation a “never ending Witch Hunt” and said it is being led by “13 very Angry and Conflicted Democrats.”
The comments by Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani about the legal limits of presidential power follow a report in The New York Times that the president’s lawyers had authored a 20-page memorandum in January arguing that Mr. Trump could “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon.”
In the memo, sent to Mr. Mueller’s office in January, the president’s legal team said that the president cannot, by definition, illegally obstruct any part of the Russia probe because the Constitution gives him the power to end it in the first place.
The president also tweeted Monday morning about trade, asserting that Canada has “all sorts of trade barriers” on American agricultural products. “Not acceptable,” he said. He also bragged about his accomplishments at the 500-day mark in office.
Shortly after, the White House echoed that sentiment with an email to reporters titled: “President Donald J. Trump’s 500 Days of American Greatness.”
Courtesy/Source: NY Times
