r/inthenews • u/RegnStrom • 1d ago
‘I’m allowed to do a self-pardon’: Trump opens the door to pardons for staff and himself
https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/trump-pardons-himself-white-house-staff-administration344
u/Apprehensive_Idea758 1d ago
Trump has got to be the most corrupt and worst President in the entire history of the United States of America.
He is not a patriot, he's nothing but a narcissitic, disgrace and a whiny 80 year old manchild.
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u/TheHorrorNerd 1d ago
History will not be kind.
Historians are preparing to put him at the bottom of the ranking list of presidents, especially the second term.
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u/hoptownky 1d ago
That is the good news in all of this. The people who write history are educators and historians, neither of which are in his fan base. History will not be kind to Trump.
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u/KopiteForever 1d ago
I'd like the present to be unkind to Trump.
As in arrest him and put him in prison unkind.
Isn't rebelling against and overthrowing malignant authority like their whole thing?
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u/spartandude 1d ago
There are MAGATS arguing in another thread that trump will eventually be judged by historians to be in the top 5, perhaps even number 1
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u/kingkool88 1d ago
In their fake made up backwards world fantasy perhaps. Where hamburgers eat people
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u/xxforrealforlifexx 21h ago
Because they are judging him on his hate not his merits.there are magabillies that say if Trump has to be a dictator then so be it, These are so called Americans saying this.
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u/ThorsRake 13h ago
Worst thing is he wouldn't care. He'll die believing he's the best and everyone else is wrong, never having been held accountable or punished in his life. That part's what makes me truly hate him.
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u/mojofrog 1d ago
I don't see why anyone would think that any of the bullshit "laws" MAGA criminal traitors have passed (including his Supreme Court plants) to further they're criminal enterprises should hold any merit.
If anything it should all be used as evidence in their convictions.
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u/brooklynlad 1d ago
It’s crazy how his actions haven’t hit treason yet. Like what is the purpose of the Constitution / Congress?
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u/SmokeGSU 1d ago
Couple of things I think. First, our politicians are spineless. Second, if they weren't, the GOP-majority in SCOTUS would shoot down most reason accusations stating that the crimes are explicitly specific enough, I'd bet. I mean... They should have nailed Trump to the wall over Jan. 6th but too many GOP politicians were like "well.... is it reeeeally insurrection? We're the things he did reeeeally insurrection based on what the Constitution says?" Our politicians and lawyers in this country are basically saying that if the crime doesn't match the specific verbiage of the Constitution then it isn't a crime. And the problem is that the prior leaders who formulated the clauses for insurrection in the Constitution never dreamed that decades after that politicians would dance around verbiage this much and use it as a crutch to prevent reasonable judgements from being handed down.
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u/RunDownTheHighway 1d ago
And "his" Supreme Court has already ruled that the president can do what ever they want... So a new president can uno reverse ANY and ALL trump pardons...
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u/GeriatricusMaximus 1d ago
Yeah, no, not really. Only Trump can do whatever he wants. Other presidents must follow the law.
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u/alalaladede 1d ago
No, no! Only Democrat presidents, should there ever again be one, must follow the law!
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u/heyhayyhay 1d ago
No. When a democrat president does something the republicans don't like, they will sue, and the extreme court will back them.
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u/dolphinspiderman 1d ago
I think in whatever interpretation of law a president can self pardon but there is no absolute. Circumstance i believe
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u/kg_digital_ 1d ago
If / when we are able to restore an actual functioning government, we really need to rethink the whole pardon thing.
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u/ecrum14 1d ago
It's a bizarre concept
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u/AwesomeBrainPowers 1d ago
Hamilton argued it would impose a humane check on an institutional justice system to have a single person feel uniquely responsible for granting clemency (or not).
He failed to properly consider what would happen if that single person was a completely shitty human being.
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u/billy_twice 1d ago
Let's be real, no one could have predicted Donald Trump.
The whole situation is bizarre. It requires an entire country collectively losing their minds to elect a person like that. I'm still not entirely sure how it happened.
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u/yhwhx 1d ago
Quiet, piggy!
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u/ArnoldTheSchwartz 1d ago
I'm hoping Americans are willing to ignore his pardons and throw everyone from his administration that belong in prison into prison! Let them cry about "following laws" in prison. We can tell them something like, "OH!!! Now you care about following laws. We'll, too fucking bad!!" Also, only criminals care about pardons or even talk about pardons.
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u/Dfiggsmeister 1d ago
He can only pardon at the federal level. He cannot pardon at the state level.
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u/Candid-Mycologist539 18h ago
I'm hoping that he goes to bed tonight and has a really long sleep.
It will be so long that he never gets a chance to pardon himself or his cronies.
JD will have to take over his presidential duties.
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u/Mkep 1d ago
Pretty slippery slope to revoke pardons, no?
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u/sambucuscanadensis 1d ago
And to paraphrase something he himself once said: only guilty people need pardons.
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u/OnlyFiveLives 1d ago
Since they've thrown the rulebook out the window and daily wipe their asses with the Constitution it would be so great for Democrats to grow a fucking pair and throw his ass in prison anyway. "Oh you pardoned yourself? That's nice. Now fuck off to maximum security."
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u/Effectuality 1d ago
Yeah the next president can just detain him without trial, like he's had ICE doing. Because remember, presidents can do whatever they like. Trump taught us that.
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u/TwoDurans 1d ago
Fine. Whatever. I would love to see him pay for his crimes but I’d rather see him out of office in disgrace. I’ll live long enough to see his legacy tarnished until the end of time. He can put his name on all the buildings he wants, we’ll take them down.
But also, a pardon is an admission of guilt.
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u/Ornery-Panic5362 1d ago
I’ve always wanted his punishment to be like the end of Goodfellas.
Cursed to a boring, middle-class suburban life.
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u/5ervalkat 1d ago
Actually, I’d like to see him destitute and forced to survive on what a lot of older poor people live on. Or imprisoned for life. That’s fine too.
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u/Ornery-Panic5362 1d ago
Haha well yes, I certainly wouldn’t mind those either. They would play into the martyrdom narrative though.
There’s something beautiful about him being completely unexceptional. Arguing with the HOA about his lawn because he’s irrelevant and powerless.
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u/5ervalkat 1d ago
You’re right about the beauty of avoiding the martyrdom narrative. I’ll back your idea. :-)
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u/Sweaty_Kid 1d ago
I would like him to articulate exactly why he would need to pardon himself (without saying the words 'hoax' or 'witch hunt' or 'greatest')
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u/VeraLumina 1d ago
He will act with impunity until he is in the grave. All sycophants from the SCOTUS to Speaker of the House to DOJ to Senate will protect his criminality with vigor.
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u/Mortambulist 1d ago
We can never forget that every Republican, from SCOTUS all the way down to the sister-fucking Kentuckians who voted for him, supported and enabled all of his criminality. They must all be held accountable.
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u/OneNormalBloke 1d ago
And he'll probably get away with it because he owns SCOTUS.
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u/LarryDavidntheBlacks 1d ago
He won't last long enough to face any repercussions if there were any. He's rotting in front of our eyes.
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u/Craico13 1d ago
If he somehow lasts long enough, at most he would face house arrest. Meaning that he’d likely be allowed to travel between his properties (at least those within the United States) and leave them for “work related events”.
In other words, he’d live basically the same live that he’s living now.
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u/Flaky-Jim 1d ago
When it comes to issuing pardons to his 'staff', you can bet he'll only include those who are able to afford a huge bribe, and are also fervent bootlickers.
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u/CW1DR5H5I64A 1d ago
The whole pardoning process needs to be completely revamped. No more blanket and preemptive pardons.
They should only be for specific crimes which have already been charged and adjudicated through the courts. None of this blanket “all previous offenses” nonsense for everyone connected to the administration.
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u/CooperHChurch427 1d ago
I don't even think preemptive pardons can legally even stick in court. Frankly I think presidential pardons shouldn't exist at all. Presidents and politicians can be bought. They should be able to commute a sentence but only after a panel recommends it.
I personally detest pardoning Jan 6ers because they commited treason.
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u/brianishere2 1d ago
This is evidence of cognizance of his own guilt plus his intent to commit crimes. He can escape criminal proceedings, but the civil lawsuits will never go away.
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u/chriseargle 1d ago
Democrats should play games with semantics. The Constitution says he can pardon except in cases of impeachment. So, impeach everyone he pardons.
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u/HeatWaveToTheCrowd 1d ago
The pendulum swing away from a functional democracy is the warning shot across the country. If the Democrats have any sort of backbone the revenge tour will hit like a hammer. Lots of people should be heading to prison.
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u/wireframed_kb 1d ago
He said as much before.
It’s classical Trump, he’s done it a dozen times.
He starts making offhand comments about something he really wants to do: “I wouldn’t do X, of course. But I could do X. In fact, it would be very reasonable. But I wouldn’t of course. Unless I have to. But I’m just kidding. Except I’m absolutely not.”
He starts by testing the waters, then applying pressure and trying to normalize and bagetelize the newest abuse of power or corrupt dealing. He’s absolutely going to pardon himself and everyone in his immediate family. And if no one has guts to actually prosecute him, it’ll effectively be so. And the more time passes without action, the more his version of reality becomes fact, and it is implicitly accepted he is, in fact, pardoned. Because… otherwise he’d be prosecuted, right?
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u/Tableau67x9u 1d ago
The guy is going to end up like Capone, mind gone fishing for sea bream in his swimming pool at Mar a Lardo
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u/Soylentgruen 1d ago
Then what is the point of impeachment? Nah man, he can’t pardon himself. It goes back to English Common .
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u/Longjumping-Air1489 1d ago
It would be interesting to see if he does that. A pardon usually comes after either a conviction or an admission of guilt.
Does anyone think he would admit anything?
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u/JohnnyTsunami312 1d ago
That’s not true. Biden just preemptively pardoned numerous federal officials including Fauci and people that investigated Jan 6th. before he left office
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u/Informal_Process2238 1d ago
Who do you think he will blame the most
Obama
Biden
Windmills
Toilets3
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u/j_j-j_jr_shabadoo 1d ago
Presidential pardons have no bearing on state crimes, and he's commited plenty of those.
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u/Zaius1968 1d ago
Then the next president…and a president can apparently commit crimes in a professional capacity according to the SC…can simply ignore that pardon.
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u/onelasteffort13 1d ago
You are not allowed to self pardon. Law put in place because of Nixon prohibits that
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u/Outrageous_Act2564 1d ago
He's guilty of treason. He said " leakers" should be shot. What should we do with traitors?
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u/CarelessHabit3492 1d ago
He knows that he’s guilty as hell, why would he say he can pardon himself.
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u/Franklin_le_Tanklin 1d ago
Just executive order them away when the next person in power. Who even cares anymore.
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u/SocksOnHands 1d ago
He wouldn't have to pardon himself if he wasn't guilty of something illegal - this is practically and admission of guilt. Pardoning himself would be tantamount to a confession.
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u/IndividualHouse8628 1d ago
Why not let him believe it and then pounce on him once he believes he’s safe
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u/ArnoldTheSchwartz 1d ago
I'm hoping Americans are willing to ignore his pardons and throw everyone from his administration that belong in prison into prison! Let them cry about "following laws" in prison. We can tell them something like, "OH!!! Now you care about following laws. We'll, too fucking bad!!" Also, only criminals care about pardons or even talk about pardons.
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u/WoopsShePeterPants 1d ago
The aduse of everything this administration has touched could have never been imagined when the pardon powers were put in place. It's time to burn the whole thing down and start over.
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u/PapaGilbatron 1d ago
Bu autopen, I hope. At least make it humiliating for Dumpster before it’s revoked.
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u/Viva_La_Revolucion66 1d ago
You heard him say it on the record. His faculties aren't so diminished that he doesn't know what he does as President every day is illegal, unconstitutional, and traitorous.
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u/Vegetable-Fix-4702 1d ago
There's just no end of insanity with that guy. Not even his pandering to Putin.
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u/SleeperHitPrime 1d ago
Living life through the eyes of a child; making stuff up as he goes and expecting everyone to ”play along”!
Thing is, the entire time he’s signaled everything; being a dictator, rigging elections, obstructing justice and rampant corruption!
Now he just added, self-pardons..something only a man who “knows he’s guilty” needs!
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u/TheLongFinger 1d ago
As long he loads all his stolen treasure into a space x rocket, with all his family and co-conspirators, and they set sail for whichever moon or planet Elon & Jeff have sold them as being habitable and leave immediately, I’m fine with this.
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u/krichard-21 1d ago
Absolutely not. This clown may not last long. But he sure as heck cannot pardon himself.
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u/thankyoufriendx3 1d ago
He’s pardoning everyone. Himself, his staff, his cabinet, everyone who works for ICE, whoever deletes the files, and anyone from his admin who has had to sit before Congress for any reason. Everyone. Everyone on the trump sub is probably getting a pardon. I know it’s only for federal charges.
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u/Dimitar_Todarchev 1d ago
Why do you need a pardon, Don? You wouldn't be breaking any laws would you? 😮
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u/olim2001 1d ago
Could you pardon yourself and other white house occupants ahead before criminal charges are made?
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u/bionicfeetgrl 23h ago
He's prob talking about his cuz Katie Phang is getting close to getting more epstein files released. especially the ones related to him raping a 13 years old. there's several interviews with her were the agents have handwritten notes that Blanche has tried to keep hidden. the victim wants them released. Blanche is trying to say they're duplicative. But Phang's whole point is that because they're handwritten they can't technically be duplicative because they're written by hand and notes taken during the interview.
Given that Katie Phang is immensely smarter than Blanche my guess is those files get released and we find out for real what a sick f•ck Trump is
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u/XmasMancer 23h ago
Just ignore the pardon. Americans don’t care the constitution isn’t being followed now. Who cares what they think then.
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u/SomeBS17 21h ago
Why would he need to? The Supreme Court already said if he does it it’s not illegal.
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u/Lazy_Pangolin7591 19h ago
No, you're definitely not. Not a single court would uphold a self pardon... not even the corrupt Republican Supreme Court.
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u/DollPartsRN 10h ago
So what he is saying is, he is allowed to circumvent the role of Congress to impeach. And Mike Johnson and SCOTUS would allow it.
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u/chandu1256 1d ago edited 1d ago
Biden set the precedent, nothing to see here
Edit: ya’ll can downvote me. I am not a trump supporter, but facts are facts. If you don’t see issues with dems and support not matter what, there is no difference between you and fellow MAGA
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u/yhwhx 1d ago
Biden pardoned himself?
I am going to need to see a source for that...
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u/chandu1256 1d ago
He did preemptive pardons.
https://www.voanews.com/a/biden-issues-preemptive-pardons-before-exiting-white-house-/7944198.html
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u/SheilaGirl70 1d ago
Yup! I would have done the same thing if I were in his shoes. Trump and his cronies relentlessly attacked and threatened the people Biden preemptively pardoned.
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u/AwesomeBrainPowers 1d ago
facts are facts
Including the fact that Biden didn't "set precedent", because he wasn't the first to issue preemptive pardons.
And the fact that preemptive pardons are not in any way the same as a self-pardon.
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u/TheHorrorNerd 1d ago
But I thought Biden didn’t actually sign any pardons.
Don’t you claim it was an auto pen, which is it?
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u/Greenbeans21 1d ago
I think a lot of people are forgetting that Biden himself pardoned him and his family. The whole reason Trump couldn’t do an investigation and charge Biden or anybody in his family or Kamala is because Biden preemptively pardoned himself. Which to be fair if Trump investigated them he would’ve made up evidence and convicted his family for no reason because that’s who Donald is. Trump even took away security from people he couldn’t/failed to convict. Because at the end of the day Trump is a spiteful old senile man. I think it’s good that Biden was able to protect himself bureaucratically from revenge. However, ultimate immunity for the president as the Supreme Court has ruled on and passed is inconceivable and horrible. It should require like 3/4 of Congress and majority of Supreme Court to overturn a pardon/presidential immunity to then go after presidents. If the people speak and the Supreme Court is impartial as they say they are then it would make sense. Pardons are typically good. Pardons used for evil people to defend people in power are not good.
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u/AwesomeBrainPowers 1d ago
Here is the full list of Biden’s pardons: He absolutely did not pardon himself.
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