Since Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election to now-president-elect Joe Biden, the subject of pardons have been thick in the air. Multiple reports have indicated that the outgoing president is floating the idea of passing out “Get Out Of Jail Free Cards” like parting gifts on his way out of the White House — such as the possibility of preemptive pardons for his three eldest children who are deeply embroiled in his various shenanigans and his personal attorney and head idiot of his election fraud defense team Rudy Giuliani.
However, the biggest wonder for the American people has been how Donald Trump will ultimately handle his own pardon.
Now, we have yet to get any official confirmation regarding any pardons for Trump himself. But it is certainly safe to say that the majority of Americans feel that a Trump pardon isn’t a matter of if, but a matter of how.
Many people have speculated that Trump will simply give himself one of those preemptive pardons on the way out the door. But some believe that Trump and his right-hand man Mike Pence may have a more elaborate plan up their sleeves.
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New York Attorney General Letitia James recently predicted that Trump will resign from the presidency before his lame-duck period is over, making Pence the acting president, and then receive his pardon from his former vice president.
During an appearance on ABC’s The View, James said, “He can preemptively pardon individuals, and the vast majority of legal scholars have indicated that he cannot pardon himself. What he could do is step down and allow the vice president — Vice President Pence — to pardon him.”
Later in the appearance, she added, “I suspect at some point in time he will step down and allow the vice president to pardon him.”
James laid out the hypothetical situation based on a 1974 DOJ memo that stated then-President Nixon “cannot pardon himself.”
The memo read:
If under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment the President declared that he was temporarily unable to perform the duties of the office, the Vice President would become Acting President and as such could pardon the President. Thereafter the President could either resign or resume the duties of his office.”
The AG went on to note that while can pardon people from federal crimes, he cannot pardon them from crimes that hail from a state level — something that works in her favor, as she opened an investigation last year into Trump’s businesses and their connections to Deutsche Bank after Michael Cohen testified under oath that Donald had inflated his assets and financial statements.
A bill that James personally advocated for was passed in New York last year, putting into effect a law that would allow the state to pursue charges against someone who has already received a pardon for federal crimes.
“I’m so happy they passed that bill and it is now the law in the state of New York,” James said. “President Trump cannot avoid justice in the great state of New York.”
You can watch the clip here:
.@NewYorkStateAG @TishJames tells @TheView she suspects Pres. Trump “will step down and allow the vice president to pardon him” before the end of his term as she says the “vast majority of legal scholars have indicated that he cannot pardon himself.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/xeJwNtA4eH
— The View (@TheView) December 8, 2020
Featured image via Flickr/Gage Skidmore, under Creative Commons license 2.0
