Can President Trump pardon himself? That's the big question today in the world of the mainstream media. The president's lawyer was asked this question on one of those usually inane Sunday morning "news" shows, and he responded that Trump had that power but would not consider using it. That should have ended the issue, but, of course, it has not. Now we are being treated (tweeted?) to endless discussions of President Trump considering whether or not to pardon himself. Of course, Had Rudy Giuliani, the president's lawyer, refused to answer the question, the media would be running with stories about how the White House refused to rule out the use of the pardon power by Trump on himself. In other words, this was a question designed to lead to negative coverage of Trump no matter what the response was.
Think about it for a moment. Exactly what "crime" would the President issue a pardon for himself? For two years now, the consistent conclusion has been that there is no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and certainly no hint of involvement by Trump himself in anything related to Russia in any way. The mainstream media nevertheless push the lie that Trump could be impeached for the Russia-Trump collusion hoax. That lie, however, doesn't create a crime for which a pardon would be issued. Maybe Trump could pardon himself for supposed obstruction of justice, but that didn't happen either. The focus of the obstruction "investigation" has been the interaction between Trump and Jim Comey while he was still director of the FBI and also Trump's later firing of Comey. There's no obstruction, however. Comey already testified under oath that he did not feel directed or even pressured to drop the investigation of Mike Flynn, so it would be hard to make out any case regarding obstruction on that. Further, in both situations, the President was acting well within the parameters of his office. After all, he is the one ultimately in charge of all criminal investigation done by the Executive branch of the government. So here too, there is no possible crime to pardon.
Today's pardon pandemonium is pure nonsense.
Think about it for a moment. Exactly what "crime" would the President issue a pardon for himself? For two years now, the consistent conclusion has been that there is no evidence of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia and certainly no hint of involvement by Trump himself in anything related to Russia in any way. The mainstream media nevertheless push the lie that Trump could be impeached for the Russia-Trump collusion hoax. That lie, however, doesn't create a crime for which a pardon would be issued. Maybe Trump could pardon himself for supposed obstruction of justice, but that didn't happen either. The focus of the obstruction "investigation" has been the interaction between Trump and Jim Comey while he was still director of the FBI and also Trump's later firing of Comey. There's no obstruction, however. Comey already testified under oath that he did not feel directed or even pressured to drop the investigation of Mike Flynn, so it would be hard to make out any case regarding obstruction on that. Further, in both situations, the President was acting well within the parameters of his office. After all, he is the one ultimately in charge of all criminal investigation done by the Executive branch of the government. So here too, there is no possible crime to pardon.
Today's pardon pandemonium is pure nonsense.
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