The Times of London published an excerpt of the forthcoming book “Landslide: The Final Days of the Trump Presidency” written by Michael Wolff. And with all the criming around former President Donald Trump had done while he was in office, most of us wondered before he disgracefully left the White House if he would pardon himself. Wolff’s new book claims that the former president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, discouraged Trump from pardoning himself because it might motivate states to go after the twice-impeached one-term president even more.
“Pardons were a power that from the beginning of his term had particularly excited him because they represented unlimited power,” the excerpt reads. “He could simply pardon anyone he wanted to pardon. On his own say-so. But now they had become quite a bother — too many pardon possibilities, too many details, too many people — and the finality annoyed him: he needed to pardon people now because there would be no chance to pardon them later.”
“Bored by the process and the details, Trump nevertheless, in the last week, would trawl for candidates, with sudden spurts of determination not to leave this power unused. “Who do you think should be pardoned? Give me one person — who’s your top pick?” became a frequent conversational interruption,” the book continues.
Trump was concerned that Ghislaine Maxwell might flip on someone.
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“One “oh, shit” moment involved his sudden interest in Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein now facing years in prison over allegations of her role in the Epstein sex-abuse scandal,” the excerpt continues. ‘Trump had tried hard to downplay his own long relationship with Epstein. “Has she said anything about me?” he openly wondered. “Is she going to talk? Will she roll on anybody?”’
But pardon talk almost immediately segued to the question of if he should pardon himself: “They say I can. Unlimited pardon power.”
“Kushner, however, dissuaded him here: giving himself a federal pardon, which was the only pardon power the president had, might just create more reason and more motivation for various states to go after him,” the excerpt adds. “Still, with such a lot of people out there who wanted to hurt him, he should pardon the whole family, shouldn’t he — even Barron? Kushner elided. (Other family members would note that Kushner did, though, grab a pardon for his own father.)”
Oh, that doesn’t make Trump look guilty at all (wink wink).
Featured image via Presidencia de la República Mexicana Follow/Flickr, under Creative Commons license 2.0
