Self-pardon ‘would cause cataclysm’

Washington’s all atwitter over Trump’s tweet, but his team says there’s nothing to forgive

U.S. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said President Donald Trump would trigger “a cataclysm” if he fires Special Counsel Robert Mueller or pardons himself, even as one of the president’s lawyers said pardons aren’t being discussed.

Schumer said he can’t imagine his Republican colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan, “just standing by” if Trump moves to dismiss Mueller or pardons himself or someone close to him who’s under investigation.

“It would be one of the greatest, greatest breaking of rule of law, of traditional democratic norms of what our democracy is about,” Schumer said on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday. “It would cause a cataclysm in Washington.”

While the president has the constitutional power to grant pardons — though the U.S. Supreme Court probably would have to decide whether he could pardon himself — his legal team isn’t having conversations with him about it, Jay Sekulow, one of Trump’s personal lawyers, said on ABC.

“We’re not researching the issue because the issue of pardons is not on the table,” Sekulow said. “There’s nothing to pardon from.”

Trump suggested in an interview with the New York Times on July 19 that Mueller would cross “a red line” if he looked into those issues, and the president mentioned pardons as part of a series of earlymorning Twitter posts on Saturday.

“While all agree the U.S. president has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us,” Trump told his 34.3 million followers on Twitter.

Anthony Scaramucci, whom Trump named his new communications director on Friday, called the focus on Russia “overblown.” He said on “Fox News Sunday” that the president brought up the issue of pardons in the Oval Office last week and said that he doesn’t need to use it.

“There’s nobody around him that has to be pardoned,” Scaramucci said. “He was just making the statement about the power of pardons.”

Trump “in all likelihood” has the power to pardon himself, but it’s not a good idea, Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “In a political sphere, I would caution someone to think about pardoning themselves or family members,” Paul said.

Sekulow said Trump’s legal team hasn’t raised it with Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general who appointed Mueller after Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself from the investigation.

“We’re going to be constantly evaluating that situation,” Sekulow said on ABC.