Sources: Short expressed an unprecedented idea, experts are breaking their heads

Trump hopes to publish the list of pardons on January 19, the last day of his presidency. His proposals are currently being examined by senior advisers and the White House Council Chancellery, the sources said.

According to sources familiar with the president’s discussions with top advisers in recent weeks, the toughest question facing his team of lawyers is whether the president has the authority to grant himself grace.
Trump has previously stated that he will also have the right to clemency, although this is a matter of legal dispute and no president has tried so far.

The president’s intention to grant himself mercy is unprecedented in American history. Specialists do not agree on whether such an action would be permissible. Even if the granting of clemency were lawful, it would apply only to federal crimes.

The White House declined to comment.

Grace to oneself could also be proof of significant political responsibility and become an obstacle in the upcoming presidential elections, as opponents will no doubt use it as a presumption that he made such a decision out of fear of being prosecuted for breaking the law.

The list of pardons under consideration included high-ranking White House officials not charged with crime, including White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, Senior Adviser Stephen Miller, Director of the Personnel Office John McEntee and Director of Social Media Dan Scavino.

Among the candidates on the list are Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, and her husband, Jared Kushner, who work for the White House, sources said. It was also reported that Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has already discussed with Trump the possibility of granting him a pardon.

Proactive grace is also being granted to other members of the president’s family, as well as to friends and allies. Trump, for example, ordered the reprieve for Kimberly Guilfoyule, a former Fox News anchor who will meet with her eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

With such preventive pardons, the President seeks to protect his recipients from prosecution for any federal crime committed prior to the granting of the pardon.

He is also considering granting clemency to Albert Pirro, who previously collaborated with the president on real estate transactions and was convicted of tax evasion. Pirro is the husband of Jeanina Pirro, a former Fox News anchor and a former prosecutor for Westchester County, near New York.

Grace to celebrities

Trump is also considering pardoning celebrities, including rapper Lila Wayne, with whom he posed for a photo during the presidential campaign, as well as rapper Kodak Black, who is serving time for falsifying documents when acquiring a firearm.

Other celebrities, including rapper Lill Jachty and forward Baltimore Ravens, have publicly lobbied Trump to pardon Kodak Black, who has now promised to donate a million dollars to charities in a deleted tweet if the president frees him.

D. Currently, attorneys are analyzing the short list, who are concerned that the pardons could lead to new charges against members of the administration for obstructing justice. The process is controlled in part by the chief White House attorney, Pat Cipollone. A White House spokesman did not respond to request for comment.

Although some of the proposed pardons have already been taken in reviewing the required legal steps within the White House, the idea of ​​self-grace, according to sources, is still up in the air and has only reached the level of debate.

Shield D. Trumpui

Giving yourself to D. Trump would protect you from being persecuted for a wide range of topics that political opponents say could lead to persecution, from paying his federal tax returns and staggering sums to a porn star for his silence. inaugural committee. Short family-owned places.

Some Democrats continue to argue that Trump should be investigated for Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, although special investigator Robert Mueller has found no evidence that the presidential campaign learned from the Kremlin. And more recently, Trump has drawn attention to his efforts to pressure officials in Georgia to “find” enough votes to change the election results, as well as the incitement that ultimately prompted an angry crowd to storm the US Capitol. United States on Wednesday.

The power of the president to grant clemency is enshrined in the Constitution, which states that the president “has the power to defer the execution of a sentence (of death) and to grant clemency for transgressions against the United States, except in cases of accusation “.

Such broad powers are considered by some to be unconditional, though the Justice Department’s 1974 statutory findings state that “the president cannot grant himself mercy” because, as the findings state, “an essential rule is that no one can be a judge in his own case. “

Brian Chalt, a Michigan State University Law School professor who writes extensively about giving self-grace, says it’s unclear whether the president can do that.

“The main argument in favor of the right to grant grace for oneself is that the Constitution does not explicitly exclude such right and that the concept of the power to grant grace is very broad,” he said.

“The argument against granting grace to oneself relates primarily to the definition of granting grace, which defines grace as something that can be given to another person,” Kalt said. “Furthermore, the general principle of law applies: no one can be a judge in his own case.”

G. Ford and R. Nixon

D. Short would not be the first person to give pre-emptive thanks, although that step is rare. Gerald Ford did it for Richard Nixon, just a month after his resignation due to the Watergate scandal, granting him “full, free and absolute grace” for all crimes that the former president “committed or may have committed or participated throughout his term as president. Term of office ‘.

D. In Trump’s case, the pardon can only be granted for federal crimes, which means that he cannot protect himself or his family from legal inconvenience at the state level. New York State Attorney General Letitia James has launched an investigation into the president’s business for fraud, and Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance is conducting a criminal investigation.

Trump, who has already lost the presidential election, pardoned several political allies and friends, including his 2016 campaign leader Paul Manafort, who was convicted of financial crimes and illegal lobbying, and Charles Kushner, a real estate contractor and father of his son-in-law. . . Elder Kushner has been convicted of crimes such as falsifying tax returns and influencing witnesses.