Can the ex-president give himself a pardon?

It's open to debate, that it is at best a grey area. What should be noted though is that to do so he would be admitting guilt because you can't claim innocence and accept a pardon, that is not how pardons work.
https://www.lawinfo.com/resources/c...ence-between-an-expungement-and-a-pardon.html

So he has a dilemma, he can pardon all those found guilty in federal courts for things such as attacking the Capital on Jan 6th or are willing to admit guilt, himself included. It has to be this way otherwise he could give himself a pardon for crimes not yet discovered to prevent even prosecution.
If he gives himself pardons for Federal crimes he would be pleading guilty. Would he do such a thing? Not until he's at the end of his term and no longer worries about what anyone thinks.

It should be noted, NY is not likely to pardon him as no Democrat governor is going to give up their futures for him. In Georgia a pardon can only be issued after sentence has been served.

 

Maybe it is off topic but in my personal opinion it has never been verified whether a Presidential pardon necessarily has to last after that President leaves office.

Rather there is a tradition of political culture and precedent that respects that, but that tradition and precedent extends further than just the official pardon power under the Constitution.

The reality is that, even without the specific enumerated Constitutional power of pardon, the President is still effectively in control of all prosecutions at the federal level (unless Congress goes out of its way to circumvent that and empower a separate prosecutor, which is rare).

 

The issue with that revolves around what the precise nature of those things are and how they should be characterized.

I expect Trump may commute many of the sentences, deeming them to be excessive, and may perhaps completely pardon a much smaller number of them.

I think if we're honest, we would have to admit that many of those prosecutions and the way the judges handled the cases were at least in part politically motivated.

Some of the defendants were accused of "doing" things that it is not so obvious whether they did those things or not. (a matter of characterization, not of facts)

 

I do not think this is necessarily the case.

That is, the president could give a preemptive pardon before charges are ever filed, or before it is known whether there would be a guilty verdict in the case.

Whether that pardon would be respected and upheld after that president has left office is another matter.

 

My prediction, not that anyone cares, is biden will pardon President Trump in the ultimate azz smoochie ever, or the Supreme Court will overturn his unconstitutional convictions. After all President Trump wasn’t even allowed to call witnesses at some of these politically motivated attempts to prosecute an opposer of the democrat party shams. That’s all over now. Those poor vote changing ladies are gona feel just like stormy, completely abandoned by the democrat party after being used and beaten. You guys think stormy will ever pay President Trump the $650,000 she owes him for defamation?

 

Trump has only been convicted in NY State court for violation of New York State law. A presidential pardon does not apply to that situation.

It's almost certain that the other proceedings will be abandoned or stayed.

 

Trump allies push to punish Jack Smith in first test of retribution vow

Even as Jack Smith moved to wind down his federal election interference case against Donald Trump on Friday, House Republicans took an initial step toward investigating the special counsel, setting up an early test of how the president-elect’s calls for retribution will play out.

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Georgia) asked Smith’s office to preserve all records of the historic classified document and election interference probes, a routine first step in congressional inquiries, law enforcement investigations and litigation. Elon Musk, the X owner who spent more than $100 million boosting Trump’s campaign, responded to the House Republicans’ letter by posting, “Jack Smith’s abuse of the justice system cannot go unpunished.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/11/08/trump-dc-criminal-case-suspend-deadlines/

Obviously, trump feels he must discredit Smith and his investigations. So he's going to unleash the Crazy in the House to do his dirty work. Will House committee's be spending time proving trump's innocence? No......cuz they can't, the evidence shows he's guilty.

They will instead attempt to smear the investigators. Assassinate their characters like trump always does. It's what he did to the grand juries, and the judges, and even the judge's clerk in his civil cases. It's what he's done to Smith, to James, to Bragg, to Garland, to anyone involved in the pursuit of holding Don accountable. He's hoping to find some tiny thing and blow it out of proportion like he did in the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. To muddy the waters. To substitute impugning the character of the prosecutors for proof of innocence. Because he doesn't have any of that. Which doesn't matter..........because The Following will buy whatever he's selling.

 

I don't think he's gonna need a pardon but if he does, this can always happen
Biden pardons Trump
Trump pardons Hunter
Biden has said he won't pardon hunter but Trump has already said he would consider a pardon for him, so there's that

 

Why not? In fact I argue he should pardon himself. The majority of the American public obviously has.

 

Not being innocent is in no way a requirement for a pardon.

 

Man, talk about tit for tat!

 

No way… They used an unofficial claim of Russia Russia Russia during an election and hid a laptop from the American public during an election that turned out being legit. That wasn’t political hindrance that was political bias towards life long politicians. He deserves no such pardon. Hunter deserves to be prosecuted.

 

I hear you, but Trump did say that. If he was serious or not, I have no idea.

 

It was politically motivated and the American public knew it. I’m sure that’s a large part of why he had some supporters voting for him. If there is reciprocal things I couldn’t possibly care less.

 

Vance will give Trump a *surprise* pardon when his has full executive powers while Trump is getting a physical or something in appreciation for Trump being the fittest president ever with a swimmer's body and 4% body fat.

 

Accepting a guilty plea is a requirement.
If he is innocent and accepts a pardon he is pleading guilty.
If he is innocent and pleads innocent then he can not be pardoned until he is found guilty.
Guilt is required for a pardon and he only pardon federal crimes. He has zero power over state courts.

 

Trump did nothing wrong and does not need to pardon himself... Illegally appointed Jack Smith is looking to the DOJ on how to wind down his political persecution of Trump... Even Merchan can not continue with his fake sentencing because the Supreme court immunity ruling made his case invalid as some of the witnesses there were WH people...

Here Jack has filed to vacate remaining deadlines in Trump's DC criminal case. And once again the corrupt Chutkin is falling all over herself to grant his every wish

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Gb4LyydXsAASrzM?format=png&name=large
https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67656595/united-states-v-trump/?page=2
case 1:23-cr-00257-tsc

 

he owns the SC, he can do anything

 

WRONG!
Where would anybody come up with that bit of uninformed bullshit?

A federal pardon can be issued prior to the start of a legal case or inquiry, prior to any indictments being issued, for unspecified offenses, and prior to or after a conviction for a federal crime.
Ford's broad federal pardon of former president Richard M. Nixon in 1974 for "all offenses against the United States which he, Richard Nixon, has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 20, 1969 through August 9, 1974" is a notable example of a fixed-period federal pardon that came prior to any indictments being issued and that covered unspecified federal offenses that may or may not have been committed.

 

Yet requires that he actually committed the crimes or accepts guilt even if innocent. What can't be done is to forgive someone who claims innocence. Accepting a pardon is also accepting guilt.
Read closely and understand before you accuse someone of "uniformed bullshit" else they might accuse you of spreading "uninformed bullshit".

 

@Andrew Jackson
@StillBlue

Trump committed no crime... He does not need a pardon.. He can just let the appellate courts overturn these fake charges and maybe put a few of the corrupt prosecutors and corrupt judges in jail along the way...

 

The federal charges are going to be dropped and he can't pardon for state.

 

No it doesn't.

 

Biden should pardon tRaitor tRump so that we can move past his crimes against our country.

 

@StillBlue can you just provide a source to this info? I have been reading about it all over the DOJ site and some others. I can't find anything saying an admission of guilt is required.