Can Trump Pardon Himself?
On June 4, President Donald Trump tweeted, “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?”
Trump is not the first president to consider a self-pardon. On August 1, 1974, Vice President Gerald Ford met with Alexander Haig, an aide to Richard Nixon, who raised the possibility that the president might: invoke Section 3 of the Twenty-Fifth Amendment if impeached by the House and step aside temporarily on the grounds that he was “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office,” then reassume office if the Senate failed to remove him; “plea-bargain” with Congress for censure instead of removal; pardon the other Watergate defendants and himself, then resign.
Or Nixon might resign and Ford might pardon him. In his 2009 book, The Presidential Pardon Power, the political scientist Jeffrey Crouch suggested that the point of the meeting was for Haig to let Ford know that, as president, he would have the power to pardon Nixon before indictment or trial.
Four days later, the Justice Department produced a memo arguing for all federal crimes committed during his presidency.
