What's to stop 45 from pardoning everybody?

[LaydeeBug]

I'm serious. Can't he just pardon Kushner?

Pence?

Ryan?

McConnell?

First lady Ivanka?

Jr?

Eric?

Maybe that's why they keep trudging along

[Chasstev365]

1. The torches and pitch forks when we descend on Washington DC?

[Adrahil]

2. Nothing.

He'll pardon Flynn for sure, I think.

[nikibatts]

3. Not a damn thing except impeachment before hand.

I couldn't post what I am really thinking.

[Ohioblue22]

4. He can and will.. why not?

[rufus dog]

6. THIS

He will go the mass pardon route.

[melm00se]

5. Nothing as the Presidential

Pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution and is one of the few presidential powers that is damn near absolute

[Alice11111]

11. He will have to strike a deal to get pardoned too. We cannot ever underestimate his boldness.

Pushing the PM out of the way at NATO is the perfect metaphor for who he is. He may do it, wipe his hands and say get on with it.

[LaydeeBug]

7. That's why this seems to be a little crazy...they'll just get away with it somehow

because he can just pardon them

If impeachment has begun, can he still pardon people?

[jberryhill]

10. As long as he is president, yes

[jberryhill]

8. That's exactly what he will do

There is no check on the pardon power.

[beachbum bob]

9. trump can and will do it but the politcal cost in 2018 and 2020 will be YUGE

[WinkyDink]

12. Nothing can prevent his doing so. Remember Iran-Contra.

[greymattermom]

13. so, can't some of the charges be made at the state level?

I don't think he can pardon those.

[former9thward]

14. The only charges that can be made at a state level are state crimes.

A state can't make federal charges.

[yardwork]

15. It's never about prosecutions. It's about politics.

Nixon resigned because he had lost political support in Washington and among the people. The process of impeachment had begun but was interrupted by his resignation.

I've always assumed that Nixon feared criminal prosecution. After he resigned, President Ford pardoned him. All part of the deal.

Clinton was actually impeached and did not lose political support. He didn't resign. He weathered the storm and remained a popular president.

It's hard to predict how this situation will end. Politics entwine with criminal proceedings. Which will prevail?

[LaydeeBug]

16. Ok, so I am hearing that since Rep. Green introduced articles of Impeachment

and the president cannot pardon a crime related to Impeachment (or so I am told by lawyers) or any crimes that would thwart his own Impeachment that he kind of *can't* pardon everybody.

I bet we're gonna find out...

[onenote]

17. Everything you're hearing is wrong

While Rep. Green has said he is drafting Articles of Impeachment, he has not introduced anything. And even if he or others introduce articles of impeachment it will not limit in any way the presidents constitutional power to grant pardons to third persons. Whether a president can pardon himself (or herself) is a separate question that exists independent of ant impeachment proceeding.

[Mr. Ected]

18. As much as we revere our Founding Fathers and the sanctity of the Constitution

They really, REALLY got this one wrong.

You might argue that they couldn't foresee the head of a criminal syndicate being elected to the presidency and using his authority to pardon his entire network of complicit actors and conceivably even himself, but oh what an oversight.

Not to mention the fact that a two-party system in which one party exhibits fascist tendencies completely annihilates the checks and balances afforded in the Constitution.