Why Trump Critics Should Pray He Pardons Himself

...It shouldn’t.

In fact, if President Trump were to pardon himself, it would make him ripe for impeachment. No, I don’t mean that pardoning himself would amount to obstruction of justice or some other offense that he could theoretically be charged with if Congress stretches the facts to fit some statute. I mean that the pardon itself could be all the evidence Democrats need to oust Trump.

See, what a lot of people don’t realize is that a pardon isn’t simply a get out of jail free card that says a person has done nothing wrong. Quite the opposite, in order to accept a pardon, a person has to admit wrongdoing. According to the Supreme Court’s 1915 decision in Burdick v. United States, a pardon “carries an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it.”

That means that if Trump were to pardon himself for an offense, he would have to confess to it first. This element was a key factor in President Gerald Ford‘s decision to pardon President Richard Nixon. It assured that Nixon at least fess up to his crimes before being absolved.

This is important because Section II, Article 2 of the Constitution says that the President “shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” So while Trump may be able to use a pardon to protect himself from federal prosecution, it wouldn’t prevent him from being impeached.

The impeachment process, of course, demands evidence in order to file charges, or articles of impeachment, and evidence would then be brought before the Senate, who would vote on whether or not to remove the President from office.

What stronger evidence against a President could there be than an official, on the record admission that he did something wrong?

I wonder if Trump’s lawyers told him that.


http://lawnewz.com/opinion/why-trump-critics-should-pray-he-pardons-himself/

"We All Knew About the Trafficking"-The Untold Story of Trump Model Management (Part 1)


Back in July of this year, an article written by author Michael Gross about Trump’s modeling company was posted on the Daily Beast. It didn’t receive much fanfare, nor did these tweets-but lets take a look at them for a moment-

@harrysiegel
I've worked with Trump Models "Casting" we all knew of the trafficking

Wade Turnbull (@Wade_Turnbull) July 19, 2016
Asked to explain further, he stated the following:

@harrysiegel
For wealthy businessmen, Buying & selling fake contracts, Unfortunately many model agencies have the same business model

Wade Turnbull (@Wade_Turnbull) July 19, 2016
@harrysiegel
They'd ship in models, Eastern Euro's who had absolutely no chance of working in NYC. It becomes a debt slavery or fresh meat

Wade Turnbull (@Wade_Turnbull) July 19, 2016

These Tweets came from the account of Wade Turnbull. His remarks echo the sentiments of many who have worked with Trump Model Management. Turnbulls remarks are notable in particular because of their timing-They were made a full two months before the Mother Jones article outlining the immigration fraud, financial exploitation and generally deplorable working conditions at Trump’s agency were made public.

It should also be noted that Mr. Turnbull, judging by his Twitter feed, is no fan of Hillary Clinton. This is simply his impression, based on his experience working with this particular agency. And he is far from alone in his views.

About a month ago I came across a Mother Jones article about Trump’s modeling agency and its treatment of a young, largely immigrant workforce. The story was, in a way the height of irony-here was a man who built an entire campaign on his hard-line stance against immigrants, and all the while his business was committing full-scale immigration fraud. But as I read on, I was struck by how much this all resembled the business model of sex trafficking-something I have researched and written about extensively.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/6/1578544/-The-Untold-Story-of-Trump-Model-Management-A-Daily-Kos-Exclusive-Part-1

Excerpt:

To my astonishment the story disappeared into the ether of the 24/7 news cycle and seemed to be all but forgotten within a week, if that. Barbara Boxer initiated a senate inquiry, which I have been told is now underway. MJ did a short follow up, noting that Trump Models only response was to point out that the story was from “many many years ago” (it actually wasn’t)


Melania Trump sued a relatively unknown Canadian blogger and the Daily Mail over a related story, but otherwise disappeared from public view amid questions about her own strange and inconsistent account of her path to citizenship. And even as Trump ramped up his scathing rhetoric about undocumented immigrants, not one reporter bothered to challenge him on how he squared those public pronouncements with his business practices. Not one reporter asked him how much of his own purported fortune was made on the backs of undocumented immigrants, from his Polish demolition crews to his imported child models, and why that kind of thing was acceptable. The universe basically gave a collective shrug, and moved on.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/12512476490

Turn CO Blue (4,057 posts)

DailyKos BLOCKBUSTER Diary: "We all knew about the trafficking- The Untold Story of Trump Model Mgt"

link:http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/10/6/1578544/-The-Untold-Story-of-Trump-Model-Management-A-Daily-Kos-Exclusive-Part-1|

The diary in the link is probably the bravest and most important diary by a citizen journalist I've ever read.

It's the longform style of writing like in Rolling Stone or The New Yorker, with a narrative type of style that connects people, associations and events over a period of time.

I don't even have the words to express just how engrossing this diary/investigative report is and how I felt a sick, sick brick of dread and import and outrage and "ick" begin to form in my stomach from the very first paragraph.

Be prepared to be pulled in and to spend at least an hour reading this VERY LONG piece of journalism and the comments over there below it.

The first part is the backstory on modelling agencies, the dark side of that industry, and starts making connections between very rich and powerful men, and their financial and physical exploitation of young girls and women, including debt-slavery, molestation and assault.

Part II will apparently be more connections and get more into Trump Model Management, the author's conversations with Trump Models, human trafficking, and is apparently quite explosive and well-resourced.

How a Presidential Pardon Could Backfire

President Trump is considering pardoning family members and staffers caught up in the Russia investigation, but legal experts warn that it could backfire by making it harder for them to avoid testifying.

Under the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution, Americans are protected against self-incrimination, but people who have been pardoned are no longer under any legal jeopardy, Harvard Law School Professor Laurence Tribe told TIME.

"Anyone pardoned by Trump would lose most of the 5th Amendment’s protection against compelled testimony that might otherwise have incriminated the pardoned family member or associate, making it much easier for DOJ and Congress to require such individuals to give testimony that could prove highly incriminating to Trump himself," Tribe said in an email.

http://time.com/4868418/donald-trump-presidential-pardons-backfire/