Pardon isn’t all-powerful, key pol warns

The top Democrat on the House panel probing Russian interference in the 2016 election argued on Sunday that President Trump’s power to pardon is limited and can’t be used to obstruct justice.

“I don’t think the president’s power is [as] absolute as people have been suggesting,” Rep. Adam Schiff, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told ABC’s “This Week.”

“The president cannot pardon people if it’s an effort to obstruct justice, if it’s an effort to prevent Bob Mueller, others, from learning about the president’s own conduct,” the California Democrat said, referring to the special counsel leading the federal probe into Russian meddling.

But a law professor said there are few “clear limits” on the president’s pardon power.

“Congress cannot overturn pardon, nor can the courts, barring some procedural irregularity,” Adam Winkler of the University of California, Los Angeles, told The Post on Sunday.

“If the president issues a pardon in the Mueller probe, then that person will be safe from federal prosecution. However, state prosecutors could conceivably step in.”

It has been speculated that Trump might try pardoning people targeted by Mueller’s probe, which is expected to announce its first charges as early as Monday.

Trump first wielded the presidential power in August when he pardoned controversial former Phoenix-area Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Arpaio, 85, had been convicted of criminal contempt after defying court orders against his harsh treatment of undocumented immigrants.