[ad_1]
The president of the United States can, in theory, forgive whoever he wants, and he is also immune from prosecution. No charges have been brought against incumbent President Donald Trump while he was in the Oval Office, despite suspicions of various crimes.
So far, Trump has handled through a Supreme Court case, 26 allegations of sexual abuse and around 4,000 lawsuits, writes The New Yorker.
What Happens After the American Elections?
– Right to prison
But Trump has several investigations and civil lawsuits against him. Among other things, he is suspected of tax fraud, bribery and obstruction of ordinary lawsuits, writes The Independent.
“Based on what I know and what’s coming out now, he could be the first sitting president to go straight from the White House to jail,” Michael Cohen said after the New York Times revealed that Trump had only paid $ 750 in income taxes. the year he was elected president.
By January 20, it’s over. That day, Joe Biden will assume the presidency and Trump is no longer immune from the alleged crimes.
– Shock if you don’t
Thus, speculation that Donald Trump intends to forgive himself before leaving the White House have started to spin.
Cohen, who was convicted of paying Stormy Daniels money to prevent her from speaking out about her alleged relationship with Trump, said as early as September that one possible way for Trump was to forgive himself. He wondered, among other things, if Trump could appoint Vice President Mike Pence as president in the last term, so that Pence can pardon him.
American Investigator: Trumps Qualifies for Federal Court
“I would be surprised if he was not forgiven,” presidential historian Jon Meacham told The New Yorker.
However, it is not known if Trump will take that step and if it is possible.
– It is not clear if it can work. The power of forgiveness is very, very broad, but you can’t really know it, says Jack Goldsmith, who teaches at Harvard Law School, to the same newspaper.
There is also speculation whether Trump will use his last days with force to pardon business partners and the people around him against current and future investigations, NTB writes.
“If Trump loses, few things will stop him,” Andrew Weissmann, who was involved in Robert Mueller’s investigation into alleged ties between Trump and Russia, told Bloomberg News before the election results were known.
see more
Has forgiven many
During his presidency, Trump appointed three new justices to the seven seats of the United States Supreme Court. When the latest addition, the very conservative Judge Amy Coney Barret, was to be questioned in the Senate before the inauguration, she declined, among other things, to answer questions about whether Trump could forgive himself. However, he agreed that “no one is above the law.”
see more
Throughout his nearly four years in the White House, Trump has drawn attention with his pardons.
In February, he commuted the 14-year prison sentence of corrupt former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevic, and pardoned former New York Police Chief Bernie Kerik and financier Michael Milken, who was guilty of insider trading, NTB writes.
Other allies, such as former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was accused of abusing his post by severely discriminating against minorities, and Conrad Black, who was convicted of fraud but wrote a book on Trump, also received clemency.
In July, there was also an uproar when he converted the prison sentence of his longtime friend Roger Stone, just days before Stone began serving the sentence he received, after being found guilty of lying to Congress in connection with the Russia investigation. .
