Trump Won't Pardon His Family Because They May Testify Against Him

[Kablooie]

President Donald Trump will not pardon his family members or close allies because of the legal risks it might pose for himself, his former lawyer and fixer (Michael Cohen) has said.
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"Donald Trump cares for no one or for anything except for himself... that includes his own children. Donald Trump will only do what benefits Donald Trump."

Cohen said that if Trump pre-pardoned his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who has not been charged with any crime, Kushner would lose his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

"That means that Jared could be compelled to testify in a court of law or even have to appear before a hearing before Congress," he said, adding that the questions asked of him would be "against Donald Trump."

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More:

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-wont-pardon-his-family-because-they-may-testify-against-him-says-ex-lawyer-1555953

[The Roux Comes First]

1. A Wonderful Multi-Round Match, Somewhat Akin to Prisoner's Dilemma

Popcorn, please!

[unblock]

2. Oh please. As if they'll ever say anything

They'll delay
They'll claim executive privilege
They'll claim nation secrets are involved
They'll make up all kinds of excuses not to testify
Then they'll just ignore subpoenas
If they ever actually are compelled to testify, they'll claim 5th amendment rights based on state-level offenses or possibly federal offenses not covered by the pardon

And if that doesn't work, they'll just use the Reagan defense -- "golly gee. I just don't remember."

[global1]

5. They'll All Just Lie....nt

[unblock]

6. Whu-whu-whu what??! Trumps? Lie??

No, they would never do that!

[JI7]

9. They will all do whatever they can to save themselves including testifying against each other

Trump would easily sell out his kids including IVanka if it meant saving himself.

[Deuxcents]

3. Wait..what?

I’m confused

[marylandblue]

4. He is saying Trump doesn't trust his own children enough to pardon them.

Put another way, if Trump could betray his own father for some advantage, he would, so he thinks his
kids would betray him if they could.

[marble falls]

10. If he pardons them and they lie for him, they go to jail. If supoened and they refuse to ...

testify - they're in contempt and go to jail.

[Timewas]

7. Maybe make a deal

To save their own asses

[yankeepants]

8. It's a Mexican stand off. nt

[marie999]

11. One of our lawyers, my nephew who is a defense lawyer, likes to tell us that if we were ever

picked up by the police, even if we are totally innocent, the first words out of our mouth should be, "I want to call my lawyer.". He also told us that we should never commit a crime unless we could give the DA info on someone who committed a far worse crime.

[beastie boy]

12. The same aplies if trump pardons himself, no? This would lead to a batshit hilarious situation

Imagine if you will: come January 21, if anyone sues anyone else in a federal court and calls trump as a witness, trump, no longer having protections under the 5th amendment or executive privilege, must rat on every one of his accomplices that have any reasonable connection to any lawsuit to come. That includes Jarod, Ivanka, his company's CFO, Uncle Vlad, etc, etc. And they are all aware of it, just as trump is aware of the perils of pardoning any of them. I can't possibly imagine more people shitting their pants at the mention of the word "pardon". I bet they are all making plans to hire the best lawyers to argue that a self-pardon is unconstitutional. Except,maybe Uncle Vlad. He probably has some diplomat measuring windows on the 20th floor of Trump Tower.

But coming back to trump's testimony, it is more likely that the compulsive liar will just lie his ass off. Not because he has any moral reservation against ratting his cronies out, but because he just can't help himself.

Oh, the possibilities are delicious, no matter how you look at it!