Trump says he could pardon himself but asks why

Justice Dept. opinion in Nixon era says different

USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Trump asserted his right to pardon himself Monday, raising the constitutional stakes in a potential showdown with the special counsel investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia.

“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?” Trump tweeted.

Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that Trump “has no intention of pardoning himself ” but quickly added, “Not to say he can’t.” He said the president was making a “hypothetical point.”

The legal scholarship is conflicted. No court has ruled on the question, but a Justice Department opinion from 1974 said the president cannot pardon himself. That opinion cited the “fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case.”

As Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., pointed out Monday, President Nixon resigned three days after that opinion was issued. “In case you want to follow the Nixon model, that would be Thursday,” Schiff tweeted to Trump.

The Constitution says the president can grant pardons “except in cases of impeachment” — suggesting to some that the president could pardon himself for a crime and still be impeached.

Brian Kalt, a Michigan State law professor who has studied the question of self-pardoning for 20 years, said he believes the president cannot pardon himself — but that there is a serious argument on the other side.

“It certainly would not get laughed out of court the way some people seem to think,” he said.

Trump’s legal team first suggested the president’s right to pardon himself in a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller in January, which was obtained by The New York Times and published Saturday.

In it, lawyers John Dowd and Jay Sekulow maintained that the president cannot obstruct justice because “he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.” That includes “the power to pardon any person before, during or after an investigation and/or conviction,” they said.

Mueller’s team has brought more than 100 charges against 19 people — including Trump’s former national security adviser, his former campaign chairman, campaign aides and Russian propagandists. Four pleaded guilty.