‘I’m allowed to do a self-pardon’: Trump opens the door to pardons for staff and himself

President Donald Trump has again floated using clemency to shield himself and the people around him. Speaking with Rob Finnerty of Newsmax this week, he was asked whether he is seriously weighing a pardon for himself before leaving office. He first said he had done nothing wrong, then asserted that he is allowed to pardon himself and called the pardon power the most powerful tool a president holds. He added that he does not want his people to endure years of legal trouble, hiring lawyers and spending money, only to have it come to nothing, and he described critics on the left as lunatics, according to MS NOW.

MS NOW's Steve Benen notes that the legal question is unsettled. Before Richard Nixon stepped down in 1974, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel wrote a memo concluding that presidents cannot pardon themselves, but such opinions do not bind courts and no court has ruled on the matter. Weeks earlier, Trump told Time magazine he is ready to pardon members of his administration, and, months before, on a conservative radio program, he claimed an absolute right to pardon himself.

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