Trump plans to forgive more than 100 people ahead of inauguration day

In his last 48 hours in office, President Donald Trump plans to pardon more than 100 people. Although he has already launched the idea to do so, it is not known whether he will attempt to include himself among those who enjoy leniency.

According to CNN, Trump held a meeting on Sunday with key aides – including his daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Jared Kushner – to review the candidates for his final pardons. The Washington Post said it would announce pardons and prison term commutations on Monday or Tuesday.

The question remains open whether two close associates, Stephen Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, would be on the list, which would be populated with more traditional forgiveness candidates, as well as high-profile figures.

Bannon, who was Trump’s campaign adviser in 2016, was accused last year of defrauding donors who contributed to an effort to privately fund new sections of the US-Mexico border wall. Giuliani has been Trump’s personal attorney for years and has helped lead the Trump campaign’s failed attempts to overturn the November election results in court. Unlike Bannon, Giuliani has not been charged with any crime, but his financial relations with Ukrainian associates are under investigation.

Any pardon for Giuliani would therefore be preventive – and according to the Washington Post, Trump is also considering preemptively forgiving his family members.

Trump has reportedly sought to forgive his family members and Giuliani for weeks. According to the New York Times, the president has expressed concern that the new Biden administration is targeting the Trump family. The family is also under investigation in New York City, although a presidential pardon does not affect state or local criminal investigations or charges.

In general, it is not unusual for a president to grant mercy to criminals during his last days in office. On January 19, 2017, President Barack Obama granted 330 prison term commutations to non-violent offenders, his last full day in office. This set a one-day record. Overall, Obama has granted clemency to 1,715 people in jail during his eight years, using a single executive authority.

Trump has used that same power 94 times, including forgiving 49 people the week before Christmas 2020. But many of those pardons have been allies or people with connections to his family. For example, he pardoned his disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn, accused of lying to the FBI while investigating Trump, shortly before Thanksgiving.

Former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally, were among those who received Christmas graces, as was Charles Kushner, Ivanka’s stepfather, who was recognized. guilty in 2005 of tax evasion, witness tampering and lying to the Federal Election Commission.

A New York Times report, which found that Trump’s advisers and allies were accepting money to lobby for pardons, is also of concern. As long as Trump himself is not paid to grant a pardon, it is not illegal – but criminal justice advocates have expressed concerns that it could benefit those with resources and connections by compared to low income pardon petitioners.

Trump has granted clemency to some lesser-known people, although often at the request of prominent figures, such as Kim Kardashian; she personally asked Trump to release Alice Johnson, a woman serving a federal sentence for drug trafficking.

Trump’s final pardons should include figures like Johnson, but also people he is close to. The question, however, is whether he will try to forgive himself preemptively. Trump faces no charges – although he potentially does for his role in the turmoil of the Jan.6 insurgency – and no president has ever tried to forgive himself before.

Whether a president can forgive himself is a matter of legal debate. But even if Trump can forgive himself, it’s not clear he should, as any forgiveness can be seen by some as an admission of guilt, which could endanger his chances of acquittal in his next trial. dismissal from the Senate.

Most jurists think Trump can’t legally forgive himself

In 2018, during a federal inquiry into his first presidential campaign, Trump tweeted that he had an “absolute right” to forgive himself. This is probably not true, say many legal scholars.

In a Washington Post column, constitutional law expert Dale Carpenter argues that a president cannot forgive himself. In Article II of the Constitution, writes Carpenter, the president’s pardon power does not include “indictment cases.” This, he argues, is in part related to the writers’ desire to separate American democracy from the monarchy, which is why they limited the executive branch’s clemency power.

A self-pardon would also violate laws against acting as one’s own judge, reports Nina Totenberg of NPR. As Jane Coaston explained for Vox when Trump first said he could forgive himself:

As my colleague Sean Illing detailed in April, one of the potential obstacles to presidential self-forgiveness could be in the ‘take care’ clause of the Constitution – the President will ‘ensure that laws are faithfully carried out. – which some scholars take to mean that the president could not forgive himself, as it is inherently in his own best interests.

Jed Shugerman, professor of law at Fordham, says: “Obviously, self-pardon is a breach of fiduciary duty because it is obviously self-interested. But if a president succeeded in doing so, the next administration could try to sue the president, forcing a court to consider that president’s self-pardon and decide whether or not he was invalid on the grounds that he violated his fiduciary duty to serve. the best interests of the people on themselves.

This is why President Richard Nixon could not forgive himself after his resignation – as Coaston notes, “during the Watergate scandal, the Department of Justice decided that Presidents could not, in fact, be self-sufficient. forgive, because “ no one can be a judge of their own. (President Gerald Ford later pardoned Nixon in the name of national unity and “peace.”)

That said, Trump and his family also face a series of potential lawsuits in New York City. New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against the Trump organization in August and is investigating the family’s financial dealings in the state. The office of Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has also investigated the organization and its use of tax write-offs. Trump also faces a class action lawsuit from former tenants at Trump-owned properties.

None of these local and state actions would be affected by self-grace. So even if Trump makes one last unprecedented move on his way out, it won’t end his legal troubles or those of his family.