It’s amazing it even needs to be said, and I doubt The Founding Fathers ever imagined a debate over whether or not a sitting president could pardon themselves or others whom might implicate them in criminal acts they may have committed either before or during their presidency, but we need to resolve this question once and for all. Because as long as this ambiguity exists, Donald J Trump is using/abusing this “loophole” to engage in “Obstruction of Justice”.
As soon as Democrats retake control of the House in January, they need to draft a "No one is above the law" Constitutional Amendment that resolves these questions once & for all (yes, I AM aware any Constitutional Amendment requires two-thirds of Congress to approve, but I’d love to see Republicans oppose such a motion in an election year.)
We presently have someone in the White House who has no problem dangling the possibility of a Presidential Pardon to anyone in a position of implicating him in the commission of a crime, with the unquestioned intent of “Obstruction of Justice”. And as long as ambiguity exists over whether or not a president even has such power, criminal defendants will continue to try to “put one over” on prosecutors by feeding them false information (as Flynn, Manafort & Cohen have all confessed to) intended to thwart a criminal investigation into the Chief Executive in hopes of receiving a presidential pardon.
The question of whether or not a sitting president has the power to pardon themselves first came up during Watergate concerning President Nixon. Most legal scholars agree that a president would NOT have the power to pardon themselves, and fortunately for us, Nixon never put that question to the test, but legally that question was never resolved. It was years after his resignation that we learned (in his infamous Robert Frost interview) that Nixon believed no act committed by the president could be deemed “illegal” simply by benefit of the fact that (he believed) the president IS “The Law.” Likewise, no one ever ruled whether or not a sitting president could pardon OTHERS, including friends/family or those whom might implicate The President in the commission of a crime… a power that clearly hampers any criminal investigation that involves the president themselves.
As soon as Democrats retake The House in January, they need to draft a Constitutional Amendment that resolves this issue once and for all: that no president can pardon themselves or anyone implicated in the commission of a crime on behalf of the President or to protect The President or anyone connected to that president (including associates, friends, or family.)
