The question of presidential self-pardons was occasionally asked during Donald Trump’s first term, but after Monday’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling establishing that American presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for “official” acts, legal experts believe that the answer might now be “yes.”
Or, at least, “maybe.”
“President Trump has suggested to aides he wants to pardon himself in the final days of his presidency, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, a move that would mark one of the most extraordinary and untested uses of presidential power in American history,” The New York Times reported in January of 2021, two weeks before President Joe Biden would be sworn in to office.
In their 6-3 ruling along partisan lines the justices, some experts say, decided presidents should be more like “kings.”
So, if Donald Trump were to be re-elected to office, after being criminally convicted in a federal court – say, in the Espionage Act case, or in the January 6 attempted coup case – he might be able to get himself off the hook with a self-pardon, and the Supreme Court would not stop him.
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“It now appears the President can pardon himself,” constitutional law scholar and professor of law Eric Segall said after Monday’s decision.
When asked specifically, “Is Trump free to pardon himself now?” Professor Segall replied, “Maybe.”
Criminal law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick says Chief Justice John Roberts’ “majority opinion in the Trump immunity case [is] tipping the Court’s hand on whether Trump can pardon himself if he manages to win the election: The Court can’t (won’t) review presidential exercise of the pardon power.”
Attorney Scott Greenfield says it’s a “problem“:
“There is one glaring issue arising from the immunity decision: If the pardon power is unreviewable as a core presidential function, does that mean the Court won’t consider whether a president can pardon himself? If so (and it appears to be so), that’s a problem.”
During his presidency Trump signed a mere 237 acts of clemency in four years, compared to President Barack Obama’s 1927 in eight.
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