I have the right to pardon myself in Russia probe: Trump

■ ‘ Posting of spl counsel unconstitutional’

Washington, June 4: President Donald Trump asserted his presidential power and escalated his efforts to discredit the special counsel Russia probe Monday, declaring he has the “absolute right” to pardon himself and attacking the investigation as “totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL!”

Trump's comments on Twitter came a day after attorney Rudy Giuliani played down the possibility that the president could pardon himself, suggesting he might have that authority but would be unwise to use it. “Pardoning himself would be unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment,” Giuliani, a member of Trump's legal team, told NBC's “Meet the Press” on Sunday. “And he has no need to do it, he's done nothing wrong.”

On Twitter Monday, Trump said: “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?” He then again decried special counsel Robert Mueller's probe as a “never ending Witch Hunt.” Trump later added that the “appointment of the Special Councel is totally UNCONSTITUTIONAL! Despite that, we play the game because I, unlike the Democrats, have done nothing wrong!”

Trump's legal team is

making clear that it will combat any effort to force the president to testify in front of a grand jury. Giuliani on Sunday underscored one of the main arguments in a newly unveiled letter

sent by Trump's lawyers to Mueller back in January: A president can't be given a grand jury subpoena as part of the investigation into foreign meddling in the 2016 election.