[ad_1]
“This is in a category that I think you would probably run into a lot of static,” said Sen. Mike Braun (R-Ind.). “It’s charting new territory, I guess. I don’t think this has ever been attempted before.
The result is another looming confrontation between Trump and the Republican Party at large.
And the potential feud has taken on added significance as Trump prepares to leave the White House next month. The GOP is wondering how much it wants to stay aligned with Trump after his presidency. While the president has deterred voters with his controversial actions – including his past use of the power of forgiveness to spare allies – he retains a loyal following and plans a presidential election in 2024. More imminently, Republicans need the Trump base to participate in the Georgia Senate runoff on Jan.5, which will decide which party controls the Senate.
GOP senators said Trump would step on political landmines if he granted clemency to his family and associates, even as they noted that presidents have broad power of pardon. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), A Trump ally and former state attorney general, acknowledged that such a move by the president would be unprecedented.
“I don’t know what form it would take. It’s kind of an interesting legal question, ”he said. “I don’t know about analog.”
Trump has made no decision on pardons, as he and his team contemplate both legal considerations and political consequences, according to three people familiar with the talks, all of whom speak to the president. Some around Trump are concerned that the president could tarnish his legacy or hurt a future campaign if he is too expansive with his 11 a.m. pardons.
About twenty high-level collaborators and associates are awaiting a possible pardon, although the list is growing, according to one of the people. The list includes Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who run the family’s eponymous business, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, a husband and wife duo who are both senior White House assistants. All four were involved in Trump’s re-election campaign.
Trump even reflected on Twitter that he has “the absolute right to PARDON” myself – a legally contested (but untested) claim.
Yet Trump is reluctant to forgive any of them, especially Giuliani, as members of his inner circle may appear to be criminals, said one of three people who spoke to Trump this week. . Giuliani’s pardon was discussed more seriously, the person added.
A Republican who talks to Trump and supports his potential 2024 candidacy predicted pardons would not hurt the president. “It’s a big deal for the Beltway guys but not for ordinary Americans,” the person said.
The pardons would be designed to keep Trump allies from being trapped in further federal investigations.
Trump Jr. had been investigated for contacts he had during 2016 with Russians offering damaging information about his father’s rival in 2016, Hillary Clinton. Later, congressional investigators told the Justice Department that Trump Jr. may have lied to them when examining Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
Kushner also came under scrutiny for providing inaccurate information to federal authorities about his contacts with foreigners when he applied for his security clearance.
Neither has been charged.
But leniency wouldn’t extend to any state charges, congressional inquiries, or trials – of which there are many.
The New York attorney general and the Manhattan district attorney, for example, have investigated the Trump organization for possible financial fraud. DC authorities have also sued the Trump organization and Trump’s inaugural committee, alleging that the committee misused funds and sent money back to Trump’s company. Ivanka trump gwith a deposition in this costume earlier this week.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.), like other Democrats, has described the possibility of these preventive pastors as “a flagrant abuse of presidential pardon authority.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Representatives of children Trump and Giuliani don’t have it either.
Some Republicans have argued that pardons for Trump or his family would be unnecessary, suggesting that the potential moves would simply create trouble and be seen as an admission of guilt.
“I don’t know why he would forgive himself. He has not been charged with any crime, ”said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Adding:“ We will deal with these things if they happen. “
“I know why he forgave [Michael] Flynn, because Flynn was transported by rail, ”said new Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), referring to Trump’s former national security adviser who was pardoned last month after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI. “But I don’t know what the others did wrong and they would need to be pardoned.
As for Trump himself, lawyers continue to question whether a president can forgive himself. But they generally agree that a president can pardon individuals preemptively, even if this is not often done. Even the office of the pardon attorney of the Ministry of Justice indicated that would be “very unusual”.
Former presidents did, however – the most famous example being President Gerald Ford’s preemptive pardon to Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal.
“There’s no question that’s not what leniency is for,” said Mark Osler, a former federal prosecutor and pardon expert who is a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis. “It’s bad for the institution of leniency and the good it can do. But it’s a different question of whether it’s illegal or not. “
The Constitution gives the president the power “to grant stays and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in the event of impeachment.” This usually takes the form of a commutation – which reduces or eliminates a sentence, but does not erase a conviction – or a full pardon, which has all of the legal consequences of a crime.
“It is perfectly constitutional for presidents to do them and they are common at the end of terms,” said Scott Jennings, who has worked for President George W. Bush and is close to Trump’s White House. “Good judgment is essential and has not always been exercised.”
In many cases, Trump has bypassed the long, multi-layered leniency process that has been carried out in the Department of Justice for over a century. Instead, he made decisions himself in consultation with a handful of helpers.
“There is a standard DOJ process for forgiving someone, but sometimes Trump ignores it too and does it himself,” a Republican close to the White House said.
As of October, Trump had granted 27 pardons and commuted 11 sentences, according to the U.S. prosecutor’s office Pardon.
Many have been for people who made the headlines: 19th century suffragist Susan B. Anthony, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, Bush Scooter Libby adviser, and former Trump adviser Roger Stone , who lied to Congress.
“If you simply reactivate this regular process [and say], “I’m going to get my recommendations from Fox News and campaign donors who made it into the Oval Office and anyone else who wants to pitch a case to me, no I don’t think that’s true,” said said Margaret Love, a former American pardon lawyer who now represents presidential pardon seekers. “It’s ignoring the regular process and ordinary people who don’t have that kind of access.”
Nancy Cook and Gabby Orr contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link