President Trump has affirmed what he calls his “complete power to pardon.”
President Trump has affirmed what he calls his “complete power to pardon.”
He made the comment in one of many tweets posted Saturday where he sounded off on various topics including the media, Obamacare, and the Russia investigation.
Trump wrote, “While all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon, why think of that when only crime so far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS.”
The news that he was potentially exploring the option was revealed in a recent Washington Post report which stated, based on an inside source, that “Trump has asked his advisers about his power to pardon aides, family members and even himself in connection with the [Russia] probe.”
It then added, “A second person said Trump’s lawyers have been discussing the president’s pardoning powers among themselves.”
However, the story was later updated to include a response from a member of Trump’s legal team, John Dowd, who reportedly “said it was ‘not true’ and ‘nonsense.’”
During an on-camera press briefing Friday, newly named press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders appeared to leave open the possibility that Trump could issue pardons over Russia when she stated, “The president maintains pardon powers like any president would, but there are no announcements or planned announcements on that front whatsoever.”
All the talk has led to speculation about whether Trump could actually pardon himself and his associates; Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt told CNN that while a legal ruling could be complicated, he admitted that “...the Constitution does not expressly prohibit self-pardons.”
Meanwhile, George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in a Post op-ed that if Trump “really did pardon his aides, his family or himself to head off Robert Mueller’s inquiry, the move probably would be constitutional but ultimately self-defeating for the president.”
