Ask Jordan: Can Trump pardon himself, or resign and have Vance pardon him?

Whether Donald Trump could shield himself from future federal prosecution through a pardon is unsettled in one scenario and fairly clear in another, according to MS NOW legal analyst Jordan Rubin, who concludes that a second prosecution looks improbable either way.

A self-pardon is legally uncharted. Before Richard Nixon stepped down in 1974, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel concluded presidents cannot pardon themselves, since no one should judge their own case. That view does not bind courts, and no president has ever tried it. A test would arise only if a later Justice Department charged Trump after he leaves office in 2029, at which point he would invoke the pardon to seek dismissal. Prosecutors would also face the Supreme Court's 2024 immunity decision in Trump v. United States, so a court might never rule on the pardon's validity.

Resignation is the more straightforward route. Trump could leave office, let Vice President JD Vance take over, and receive a pardon from him, just as Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon. Rubin adds that a Republican-run Justice Department would be unlikely to pursue Trump, and a departing Republican president could pardon him if a Democrat won in 2032.

Summarized by PolitiKool from MS NOW’s reporting. Read the full story at MS NOW →