Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/09/ny-attorney-general-predicts-trump-will-quit-so-pence-can-pardon-him.html
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Get on with it already, then…
So tired of this fucker.
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That strikes me as unlikely simply because it goes against Trump’s ego.
He’ll try to pardon himself and expect the Supreme Court to back him. I won’t even rule out that they might.
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Sadly accepting this is pence we’re considering here. Yet like trump’s supreme court slime trio refusing to declare trump king, i’d recommend pence a promotion from ring of hell ninth to fifth if pence apparently agreed to pardon trump and as soon as trump was gone, effectively said “wait… trump, who?”
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Agreed. If his sense of self-preservation was stronger than his ego then he never would have contracted Covid-19.
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Legal Eagle just did a video on the legalities of self pardons.
What I think is insane is: they can do preemptive pardons. But it does only work against Federal crimes, not state ones. Trump resigning Jan 19th and having Pence pardon him would absolve him of any possible federal charges. 
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That would be a particularly sleazy end to a particularly slimy regime, so I’m willing to assume it’s a possibility.
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“Preemptive” in the sense that you can be pardoned for a crime that you haven’t yet been charged with, but not preemptive in the sense that you can be pardoned for a crime you haven’t yet committed.
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What I would really like to see is Trump resign, expecting Pence to pardon him and then Pence not doing it.
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Like @theophrastus I’m definitely hoping he punts this to Pence, who then unleashes some holier-than-thou type of “Nope” maneuver. Unfortunately he’d then probably use his newfound power to make abortion illegal, or rejoin church and state, or anoint a new right-wing superpope substitute, or some other righteous bullshit.
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Right. But if you did a crime in say 2020, and they haven’t finished or started the investigation, or brought charges, or didn’t even know about - they can blanket pardon it.
“I pardon Donald Trump for all federal crimes, including that time he killed a small boy for having 3 scoops of ice cream.”
O_O “When did this happen?”
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I thought that for pardons, the particulars of the crime had to be stipulated.
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I hardly know the guy.
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Nixon was pardoned for whatever he might have done.
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I haven’t been paying attention for a few days… Didn’t Biden say he has no intention of holding Trump accountable? That would mirror precedent, especially that of Obama, who could have had the Shrub behind bars if he wasn’t hoping for the same Presidential “courtesy.”
Normally, yes. There are two cases of non-specific presidential pardons, most famously Ford giving Nixon a pass for whatever he did as president. It wasn’t challenged in court, at the time everyone was like, sure, let him go. It’s not clear if that establishes enough precedent to survive an actual court case. Someone would have to bring a federal charge, then argue that the pardon should be voided.
Personally, I’m less interested in whether charges are brought than that everything that actually happened should be exposed. If the pardons hold, they can all be compelled to testify.
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Assuming Trump accepts Pences pardon, Trump would effectively be admitting that he did commit crimes; that certainly helps prosecutors get something like a leg up when/if working to go after Trump in spite of the pardon (which may be challengeable in Trump’s case).
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I haven’t seen any actual quotes from Biden, but the anonymous leaks from his people have been saying that he isn’t keen on investigating and prosecuting Trump because he doesn’t want his presidency to be about Trump.
To which I say, why the fuck do you think we elected you? And also I say, if you don’t punish his crimes you are condoning them and announcing that you are OK with them being repeated.
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