Clearing self a murky issue
The Constitution gives the President sweeping ability to “Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States” for any individual in any case, as long as it is not tied to the President’s potential impeachment. An individual does not even have to be charged with a crime to get a presidential pardon.
Nearly every President has broadly used pardoning powers to absolve hundreds and even thousands of people, and even some of the most controversial modern examples passed in spite of uproar.
Gerald Ford notoriously pardoned his predecessor, Richard Nixon, for the Watergate scandal, even though Nixon was never formally charged. The ruling turned out to be political suicide for Ford, helping guarantee his short tenure, but it still stood.
George H.W. Bush pardoned former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and other Reagan officials tied to the Iran-Contra affair, which exploded while Bush served as Ronald Reagan’s vice president.
On his last day in office, Bill Clinton pardoned his troubled half-brother, Roger Clinton, for cocaine possession. He also pardoned financier Marc Rich, who had fled the country after his indictment for evading more than $48 million in taxes. Rich’s ex-wife, Denise, had made large donations to the Clintons and the Democratic Party.
The trouble with Trump is that he’s potentially the first sitting President to ponder pardoning himself, his family members or his current staff members in connection with an ongoing federal investigation.
The language in the Constitution has nothing preventing Trump from issuing any of those pardons over the Russia probe or any other matter.
“It’s not constitutionally prohibited, even if it’s against the spirit of the Constitution’s separation of powers,” said James Pfiffner, a George Mason University public policy professor who has written extensively about pardons.
But just because the Constitution doesn’t explicitly ban this doesn’t mean it’s constitutional. A pardon would only begin Trump’s biggest legal battles.
His first likely hurdle: Congress.
The impeachment talk that has been hovering over Trump