I actually don't want Trump in the WH because he will pardon himself and all those involved in the Jan 6 massacre in Washington..I'm pretty sure that's why he plans to run again but if he loses or doesn't get far enough in the race, he'll prolly lay low and enjoy playing golf and bad mouthing democrats. Trump was once a democrat and now he hates them lol
I wouldnโt worry about that too much. While the Presidental Pardon powers are extensive and theoretically he could pardon himself there are key limitations. First, a President can only pardon Federal crimes, not State level crimes, and it excludes impeachment. Second, he can only pardon past crimes, not future crimes. Lastly, if there was a chance of him winning, then all that needs to happen to prevent that would be an Amendment to the Constitutional clause that limits the pardon powers to people other than himself, family members, or business partners or what could be perceived as a conflict of interest. That should be a pretty quick and easy task to amend the Constitution for that since it takes, the House, Senate and President to make that change. The Democrats control the Senate and Presidency. It should be easy enough to find some moderate Republicans to swing the House. But the Republicans in the House are claiming โcorruptionโ that they want to clean up, so this amendment reduces potential โcorruptionโ so they would have a hard time defending not doing it or it will be used against them in the election. If the House swings back to the Democrats and the Dems keep the Senate, then there is a very small window of time before Jan 20th 2025, when all 3 branches of government would be in Democratic control to push that Amendment through.
You can only pardon a crime already committed. If he were to pardon himself that, by definition, is an admission of guilt even though he keeps claiming he never did anything wrong. So say he pardons himself for Federal Tax Fraud. Fine, but tax filings are both Federal and State level. So, if he has to admit he committed a crime at the Federal level then he also committed a crime at the Sate level since it would be the same tax filing. Then the State can charge him and he has no defence since he aLready admitted guilt at the Federal level on the same tax filing.
This will mess with your brain. There is discussions of Turning Washington D.C into the 51st State. Since the Capitol is in Washington, if DC becomes a State, then Trump might be able to Pardon himself for the Jan 6th insurrection at the Federal level, but could the new State of DC then charge him at the State level
?