Why WOULDN'T Trump either pardon himself, or have Pence pardon him ? Why take the chance of being

[OnDoutside]

charged federally, and bear in mind we don't know what else will be unearthed ?

The book by Bob Bauer and Jake Goldberg made the case for charging Trump, and not charging Trump. However, as the days are dwindling towards Jan 20, the focus has been on whether Democrats have the balls to go after Trump (on the basis that if you don't go after him, you encourage a Trump with Actual Intelligence), or whether they believe 70m people voting for a corrupt, racist narcissist would split the country even more and so shouldn't put the country through that.

Going at this from a different angle, Trump knows that he could potentially face Federal and State charges. He could inoculate himself from Federal charges by taking the pardon, knowing that the Dems are unlikely to to try to overturn that pardon. It's not like he would be ashamed by doing so (he's likely to enjoy putting one over on his detractors), and in any case his followers would probably love him even more.

So, why wouldn't he take the pardon ?

[safeinOhio]

1. Rikers Island.

Club Fed would be much more pleasant.

[frazzled]

2. There's still time /nt

[bullimiami]

3. i would put money on quitting last minute and a pence pardon, to win. and self-pardon, to place.

self-pardon only if enough crazy rudolph types convince him that it will work.

i dont think a self-pardon can survive scotus, even for trump.

[OnDoutside]

10. I agree, but the question is why wouldn't he do it ? i.e. being as paranoid as he is, getting a

pardon gets him out of a potentially sticky spot, for now anyway, which makes it a more likely calculation for me.

[PubliusEnigma]

4. He would never have Pence do anything, but he might try to pardon himself.

[tavernier]

5. Because he knows that 75% of the media will report

“In an admission of guilt, Trump accepted a pardon today.”

[OnDoutside]

11. But many of his 70m voters are chumps, and will believe any old lie from him ?

[Timewas]

6. Mostly because

He is mentally incapable of accepting that he lost and accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt.

[rusty fender]

7. See Edward Norton's tweet thread

on Trumpass’s strategy on how he doesn’t get charged with his crimes

[sir pball]

8. Well, if he's pardoned he can be forced to testify in court

Burdick (the SCOTUS case where people get the mistaken idea that a pardon is an admission of guilt) was about pardoning someone, then bringing them into court and forcing them to testify - with the pardon in hand, they couldn't be charged in connection with the crime under investigation, so they couldn't self-incriminate and there were no 5th Amendment protections.

A blanket pardon of Trump might be even more of a gift than prosecuting the man himself; in literally any investigation of crimes committed by his administration, or the Russia affair, or his taxes, or or or - he could be hauled into court, put on the stand, and if he didn't sing like a canary he'd be locked up on contempt charges...to which there is no time limit, as he holds the keys to his own cell. Stay silent and die in prison, or rat out the Russian Mob...

[OnDoutside]

9. He'll take it to court, scream "Political Hit Job", and appeal all the way up to a 6-3 majority SC.

At a guess !

Failing all that, his dementia might take hold, or so his fake doctors will testify to.

Above all, he's a day trader, he'll go one way and worry about the consequences later.

[Patterson]

12. Yeah. What is happening to him right now means more than projecting into the future.

[OnDoutside]

13. Definitely.