I gotta admit, it’s a fascinating concept, but one I find inconceivable in this particular circumstance. On his show last night, Lawrence O’Donnell had on the former chief pardon officer for the government under George H.W. Bush, and then Bill Clinton. And he had a couple of burning questions for her.
O’Donnell’s first question was a good one. He wanted to know if there was a specific legal format that a pardon had to be printed in, or if the President could just write I pardon John J Schmuck on a cocktail napkin. His reason was obvious, with the ever shrinking population of the west wing, it could be possible that Trump is running out of people qualified to draft his last slew of pardons. Sadly, the answer was the latter. The President can simply take a piece of paper, write out the pardon using any language he likes, and sign it.
I had never even considered the possibility of the second question. Could Trump issue and sign a pardon, give it to the recipient, and then never report it publicly? Nobody would ever know that the pardon was issued until federal charges were filed? Again, the answer is yes. While a pardon is normally a public display of forgiveness, no publicity is required.
I think I know where Lawrence’s head is at on that question. As we get down to Trump’s last 4 days in office, and no last slew of pardons appears, is it possible that His Lowness has already pardoned himself and all of his cronies, and one of his petty revenges will be to leave office, and laugh his ass off as federal law enforcement busts a nut putting together cases they’ll never be able to prosecute?
It’s a good question, and under different, sunnier circumstances, I could almost sign off on it. But not this President, and not in these circumstances. Here’s why.
Trump’s entire presidency has been just one long disappointment to him. When he got elected, he thought he would be like Putin, throwing enemies in jail, signing imperatives, and basking in the applause. Instead, for the most part, all he got to sign was the two or so laws a year that congress actually passed.
So instead, Trump took solace in his petty privileges. Trump almost immediately fell in love with the concept of executive orders. Just the thought of sitting behind a desk, holding up an open leather folder with his chicken scrawl visible at the bottom, while a coterie of craven toadies applauded, got him so excited that Melania had to hide out in the bunker until Hannity came on to distract. Forget the fact that something like 90% of them got thrown out of court as unconstitutional, it was the optics that mattered.
And if Trump loved his executive orders, he went full porn star over pardons. Now this was the kind of power he thought he was getting with the presidency. It was absolute, and nobody could question or overturn it. It meant a steady stream of supplicants coming to him begging for one, and best of all, occasionally it meant that a real reality television star like Kim Kardashian would show up to visit. And most of all, he could use his pardons to get under the skin of his hated opponents, the libtards and the media. Sit back and watch them rant and rave, and foam at the mouth.
And that’s why I don’t think Trump will opt for secret pardons now. His ego won’t allow it. This is by far and away the lowest period in Trump’s life. He will be out of office in 4 days, and facing prosecution. His popularity is at 29%, and he is facing his second impeachment with the real possibility he will be convicted. And worst of all, he is totally isolated, his social media access having been shut off. And then retire to his quarters to merrily watch the madness ensue.
His ego will demand that public blaze of glory. Trump won’t be able to resist going before those cameras one more time, reading off the entire rogues gallery of pardons, and then rubbing the world’s nose in his contempt for the rule of law. And then retire to his quarters to merrily watch the enduing outrage and mayhem. Trump is too kicked and down, and too deep in the dumpster to deny himself this one last Roman spectacle.
If you enjoyed this article, you might also like to check out President Evil, nd the sequel, President Evil II, A Clodwork Orange . They comprise a pretty much daily report from the front of the 2016 GOP primaries, as well as the general election
Follow me on Twitter at @RealMurfster
I think so too. He is too vindictive and petty.
And giving the bird finger to everyone that disagrees with him is a favorite pass time.
Very true.
Lawyers have advised Trump that a self pardon would invite prosecution. So, he’ll pardon himself and each of his family members, in written form, each signed by just two witnesses, and then he and each of his family will fold up their respective documents and squirrel them away until needed. Just you watch.
I think this is dubious at best. I don’t see how you can allow lengthy investigations to take place, consuming time, money and resources of federal prosecutors, only to pull out a “ha ha fooled you” card at the end when indictments arrive. There would have to be some knowledge of this somewhere in the system. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter because Letitia James and Cyrus Vance Jr will have a big chunk of him and his entire family before then and pardons don’t apply to them.
Simply because there is nothji9ng in the pardon power that requires it to be publicized…
Doesn’t work until it becomes public – it has to be presented in court.
I agree with Murfster that when it comes to most people Trump wouldn’t be able to resist rubbing pardons of deplorables in everyone’s faces. At the same time I think it’s possible that unless he has an actual signed pardon in hand from “President for an hour Pence” he might go ahead and issue himself a pardon, and pardons for Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric. Jared? Maybe not. He’s been plenty pissed at Jared for advising him to do stuff that’s spectacularly backfired, and besides with Jared indicted and on the way to federal prison his daughter might (he thinks) be so distraught that she will finally submit to his disgusting sexual advances. Yeah – he’s that sick and twisted. I think he might do it as a last minute, desperate bet that Biden will make like Obama and set a “bygones – we have to look forward” tone in the face of so much mess that has to be dealt with and that newly installed AG Garland will leave any prosecutions to NY State or other states. The secret pardons would only come to light it he’s wrong.
The problem, even if the pardons are secret is the same one that someone (Barr probably, or maybe Barr and Cippilone together) got through to him about which is that a self-pardon was a roll of the dice, and something that hasn’t gotten much attention. Acceptance of a pardon LEGALLY (and SCOTUS has issued two prior rulings already) carries with it an admission of guilt. However, it also means one can be compelled to give testimony or provide evidence in OTHER proceedings and be thrown in jail for up to a year for contempt (which can be extended to 18 months) or if caught lying be subject to fresh charges of perjury. There’s another issue too. One of the most difficult legal hurdles for prosecutors to clear for the types of crimes Trump could be charged and tried for is INTENT. The issuance of a self-pardon wouldn’t just imply consciousness of guilt in a criminal proceeding, as I noted the legal acceptance of guilt that have BOTH given himself a pardon AND quite clearly accepting it by trying to use it as a shield would be the equivalent of writing “intent” on his “junk”, setting it on the table in court and smashing it with a hammer. And having kept it secret in a “just in case I NEED it” manner won’t look so good to a judge, jury, an appellate court or SCOTUS either.
But I still say all bets are off with him now. He’s less than half a “Scaramucci” from losing all his Presidential power and the legal shield he’s been holding up like the Marin Sheen held up that baby to the gunman in the movie version of The Dead Zone and words like “desperately deranged delusional” don’t begin to adequately describe Trump’s mental state. The WH physician is probably ready at any moment to give him a “bigly” shot of Thorazine assuming the Secret Service will hold him down on the floor.
I think this is doubtful. How could lengthy investigations to take place, only to have a “ha ha fooled you” card pulled out at the end?. There’d have to be some knowledge of this somewhere in the system. Anyway, it wouldn’t matter because Letitia James and Cyrus Vance Jr will have a big chunk of all of them before then and pardons don’t apply to them.
because every time you turn around, Trump keeps rewriting the book on what is possible or not…
Then you nail them for ‘withholding pertinent information’
At some point in the investigation, they would discover this. You can’t just pardon people in your diary. Also, if they let the investigations unspool while seeing the pardons secret, the dirt pouring out would likely make their lives more difficult on many levels a pardon wouldn’t cure. I think this is highly dubious.
Oh, yeah…They would love to force the SCOTUS to make a determination once and for all…
Of course he almost certainly believes that neither he nor his brood actually did anything wrong so there’s no need for pardons.
That could be why Jarhead and Iwanna wouldn’t let the SS use their toilets – they know what’s coming and they NEEDED them all the time
Let’s review how trump screwed himself time & again. Comey? Coronavirus response? His big mouth? His twit account? 30 000 lies? Violent insurrection? & so on. Whatever he does, I’m sure eventually he will place his nuts in a vise & tighten down. Count on it. We’re lucky bozo the clown constantly screwed himself without lube. He’s as dependable as the sun coming up.
They forget that pardons only take effect when the subject presents them to a court – they don’t work while secret.
Trump will test etiquette, loopholes, the spirit and intent of laws and common sense, that’s just the man he is, the fact that people are surprised truly mind bending.
I’m resigned that he will do something horrible with pardons, and it will make all decent people angry and create obstacles to justice.
However…we persist. We still charge everyone we can, lol for state crimes to charge the pardoned, and worst case force these dolts to the witness stand with no fifth amendment protections so that they can testify to every last word that was spoken.
Also, I might personally be more eager to see his businesses crumble than to see him in jail, and I think the whole Trump empire is going to go bust before this is over.
Yes, he has that, and he will do that but his bidding war is what has his interest how much value do have to give him. It more about money at this point that’s just my two cents
If secret pardons can be issued, what is to prevent an ex-President from continuing to issue secret pardons all of his life? If there is no official record of the pardons, how would anyone know upon what date they were issued, or even if they were legitimately issued if the president that issued them was no longer alive when they get invoked? After all it wouldn’t be very hard to forge a pardon if the President that supposedly issued it in the past was now dead. Secret pardons just don’t make any sense even as a concept!