Giuliani says Trump ‘probably’ has power to self-pardon but wouldn’t use it
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump probably has authority under the Constitution to pardon himself, his lawyer Rudy Giuliani asserted Sunday, but said the president will not do so as he fights a special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and whether Trump obstructed justice.
Questions about the scope of Trump’s executive powers have intensified with the disclosure this weekend of a letter that the president’s former legal team sent to special counsel Robert Mueller in January.
The letter, which was first disclosed by the New York Times, claims that the president has unchecked authority over federal investigations and could legally act to end them or “even exercise his power to pardon.”
Democrats have reacted with incredulity to the argument laid out in the letter, likening it to Richard Nixon’s infamous assertion in 1977 – three years after he resigned the presidency to avoid impeachment – that if the president does something, it can’t be illegal.
“The president’s legal arguments would render whole sections of the Constitution moot, Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani walks toward members of the media in the lobby of the Trump Tower on Nov. 22, 2016 in New York, N.Y.
and allow a president to engage in any form of criminality and obstruct an investigation into his own wrongdoing,” Rep. Adam B. Schiff, D-calif., the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, said Saturday on Twitter. “Nobody is above the law. Not this president. Not any president.”
Giuliani, who recently joined Trump’s legal team as his personal attorney, defended the letter Sunday on ABC’S “This Week,” including its suggestion
that Trump has the power to selfpardon if he is in legal jeopardy.
“He probably does,” said Giuliani, who has taken a more combative public stance toward the Mueller investigation than Trump’s former lawyers. “He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn’t say he can’t.”
Giuliani said the “political ramifications” of the president pardoning himself “would be tough.” He outlined the political danger later on NBC’S “Meet the Press,” saying a presidential selfpardon “would probably lead to immediate impeachment.”
Courts have never ruled on the issue, but most legal scholars challenge the notion that presidential powers extend that far under Article II of the Constitution, which creates the executive branch.
The question took on added scrutiny last week when Trump ignored the usual Justice Department review process and granted a full pardon to Dinesh D’souza, a provocative conservative author and filmmaker who pleaded guilty to violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014.
Trump said he also is considering pardoning TV personality Martha Stewart, and pardoning or commuting the sentence of the former governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevich. Both were stars with Trump on NBC’S “The Apprentice.”
Stewart was convicted in an insider trading case in 2004. Blagojevich was convicted in 2011 of corruption.
Since the clemency would involve convictions for obstruction of justice, lying to federal investigators or corruption, critics saw Trump’s moves as a signal to former aides facing jail time or potential prosecution.