Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/11/24/matt-gaetz-trump-should-pardon-michael-flynn-and-himself.html
…
3 Likes
Given how insanely extremely right wing the Republicans are, it’s truly amazing that they get away with calling someone like Joe Biden “radical left”. Again and again and again.
25 Likes
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Party of Law and Order.
40 Likes
Mass-Murdering Traitor Trump should certainly do something to himself, but I’m too polite to use the correct word to describe that act.
12 Likes
Matty-boy should do the same.
11 Likes
Christ, what an asshole
19 Likes
Why would Trump need to pardon himself if he didn’t commit any crimes?
39 Likes
Hey…waitaminute…don’t you have to be convicted of something before you can receive a pardon?
I’m Canadian and know this. So what’s Matt Gass’ excuse?
Are a bunch of the Trump admin being charged and put on trial over the holidays? Hoping!
7 Likes
No, see Ford’s pardoning of Nixon.
26 Likes
Trump as president of the United States does not have the authority to pardon crimes that happened according to state laws.
10 Likes
In a math proof one quite often considers the opposite hypothesis and proves it leads to a contradiction; is there no parallel proof of legal jurisprudence which goes: if one can pardon oneself then no binding law is possible? How can being able to pardon oneself (of any crime) be even seriously entertained?
9 Likes
Are you under the impression that politics is a logical endeavor…? Oh my, no, especially the version favored by the US.
5 Likes
I was going for legal theory, as in the law, as a self consistent rational discipline. But your introduction of politics certainly applies here -sigh-
7 Likes
If Trump himself doesn’t get pardoned*, it seems to me that Trump’s opening himself up for some issues if he pardons those, like Flynn, who did dirty deeds on his behalf. There’ll be nothing preventing them from being compelled to testify about what they did and implicate him - they can’t take the fifth, and if they lie, that’s a new crime for which they will be liable. It’ll be interesting to see if Trump figures this out.
*And pardoning himself is probably not an option. It’s not settled law, in that no one has ever tried it before, but legal scholars seem to agree it’s not constitutionally kosher. If he tries it, it’ll likely end up in court and he’ll get screwed, eventually.
Everyone is radical left, relative to them. Including Republicans of previous decades. Nixon’s a goddamn commie, according to how they view various policies he originally proposed.
All the serious legal scholars I’ve read think it’s clear that the constitution doesn’t allow it. Which wouldn’t stop Trump from trying it, but after a lengthy court battle, he’d probably not win. Because yeah, it was clearly not intended to be allowed, for this very reason.
20 Likes
The further right you are, the more left everything else looks.
12 Likes
However, in order to extend a pardon, a specific crime must be stated.
2 Likes
The proper, constitutional, way to do it is that Trump gives a blanket pardon to Pence, then resigns and have Pence give him a blanket pardon.
9 Likes
Followed by the New York state nailing his orange ass to the wall with state-level charges. 
16 Likes
One can’t argue with that one, I’m afraid. The Thanksgiving turkey is innocent.
But it is especially ridiculous that the radical left should be after the people in the Trump administration because of their effectiveness. I’ll be back in a couple of day, once I finally stopped laughing about that.
2 Likes
