Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2021/01/18/trumps-final-100-pardons-to-include-rapper-lil-wayne-and-former-ny-assembly-speaker-sheldon-silver.html
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Trump's final 100+ pardons to include rapper Lil Wayne and former NY Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver
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Everybody get a nice ample barf bag for tomorrow, it’s going to be disgusting.
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How about he pardons all federal prisoners and indictees, just for fun?
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But Mr. Drumpf’s ultimate decision about pardoning himself and members of his family, they said, could remain an open question until noon on Wednesday, when his four-year tenure comes to an end.
Oh, of course he’s going to try to pardon himself and his dimwit sons at the last minute. He won’t succeed, but anyone who believes this chancer isn’t going to try hasn’t been paying attention.
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I know that a conviction in Trump’s upcoming Senate trial is still a long shot but that’s the kind of behavior that might just tip the balance.
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I don’t see him pardoning himself for the simple fact that doing so would be an admission of guilt.
As we all know, he has never done anything wrong in his life…
Ditto for his kids.
Ghouliani, otoh will be thrown under the bus, since he failed in his efforts to overthrow the election results; the same goes for his worshippers involved in the coup attempt on 1/6.
We shall see.
I’ve wondered about such scenarios.
“Oh look, all neo-nazis murderers are out of prison, great.”
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Don’t give them any ideas
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The worst part of his pardon power: that they don’t have to be made public.
In Trump’s personal case, he would certainly keep his self-pardon private, until such time as he needs to play it, like some bizarro Monopoly Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card. No need to alert the authorities of his latent power earlier than necessary. The media also wont care as much if confirmation of its existence is delayed 12 to 18 months. For the same reason, his entire crime family’s pardons can be likewise kept from public release.
Chuck Rosenburg on today’s Rachel Maddow show made a kind of bizarre statement: that the pardon power doesn’t even have to be written down. (So, what, he orally pardons himself? How does that even work? Surely, there needs to be a witness, some sort of notarization?)
That’s even more bizarro. That he can pardon someone else without their knowledge, without making it public?? “Hey, you’re pardoned-- but, I need a favor…” (Surely, some other institution must have knowledge of this before he reveals the pardon? Is it under seal somewhere?)
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Is there any way an impeachment trial can be made retroactive to the date passed by the house? So that anything he does past that date will be reversed?
Yep, as I understand it he can pardon anyone he wants, doesn’t need to notify them, and can hang on to the pardon until such time as he sees fit to release it.
This could come in handy if one were to need a few favors.
(I’d be welcome to be fact-checked on this, but from what I’ve read it appears to be possible, though in violation of the Presidential Records Act, which I’m sure he could have another pardon ready to go for that. It’d be pardons all the way down.)
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For people not wanting a king your founding fathers sure liked giving out a lot of power to one person with no oversight, eh?
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Something Trump and his admin have thumbed their noses at and violated repeatedly.
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We have devolved into Air Bud politics.
“Can the President do that?”
“Nothing in the rule book…”
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The US population of 1800 wanted a king, they wanted Washington to run for a third term.
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It’s amazing to me to hear American conservatives still yapping about Obama’s “most corrupt administration ever.” It was never true, but it’s so much further from the truth now.
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Whatever he does on the way out, we can be sure that it will push the boundaries of legality and morality, if not vault right over the boundaries without hesitation. He has an image to uphold, after all.
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How could anyone prove that he signed the pardon while still in office? There would have to be some kind of contemporaneous record of the pardon being made before noon on January 20, 2021 for that to work, wouldn’t there?
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