Back and forth on pardon

Re “Back Story: A presidential self-pardon?” July 22

What’s wrong with this picture (hypothetical, of course): a presidential candidate and/or members of his campaign conspire/ collude with an adversarial foreign government to win the election.

When the “fake media” and congressional and Justice Department investigators uncover their

misdeeds, the illegitimately elected president then exercises his absolute power to pardon all involved, including himself.

Surely, this cannot happen, can it? Charles Kent

Rancho Mission Viejo

Trump’s musing about a self-pardon would be a fundamental, first-order conflict of interest.

I think he would almost certainly be impeached.

It’s interesting to speculate, should self-pardon-impeachment-conviction come to pass, would Trump exit the White House under his own power or be dragged out like an airline passenger who refuses to give up his seat? Tom Budlong

Los Angeles

If the current administration team is exploring whether the president can pardon himself, does anyone else worry why?

This is not a challenge of ideology, appointment choices, or early morning tweets.

We have a president who lies regularly, blames the Russian interference investigation he wants to squash on everyone but himself, but is seeking legal counsel on the nuclear self-pardon option.

Why? Sad! Very sad! Marty Friedman

Manhattan Beach

It seems obvious that President Trump never planned for his family or administration, much less himself, to actually need to follow any laws.

If anyone at the DOJ was brave (or disloyal) enough to prosecute, the person would be fired.

What needs to happen is for Republicans to stand up and say enough to the conflicts of interest, the Russian collusion, the undoing of all the environmental laws and regulations, and the weakening of our power in the world.

But there doesn’t seem to be an ethical or honorable molecule among Republicans in Congress right now.

So we have a president in office who will make as much money as he can, while harming the country, and while the Republicans pretend Hillary Clinton is the cause of all the problems in the world. September Bowman

Goleta, Calif.