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I am not aware of US laws, but found it really interesting that the law gives absolute power to the President to even pardon himself! Can any legal expert on HN weigh in on this? Can the President really pardon himself and continue serving?
It's worth noting accepting a pardon is an explicit admission of guilt as ruled in Burdick v United States [1]
I suspect that he won't be charged non-the less convicted until after the mid term elections. That said, it doesn't matter if he pardons himself, because congress will likely impeach him if he is convicted or even just indicted.
I suspect that he won't be charged non-the less convicted until after the mid term elections. That said, it doesn't matter if he pardons himself, because congress will likely impeach him if he is convicted or even just indicted.
Does impeachment result in serving jail term? Or he will just be removed from President’s post but as he has pardoned himself, there will be no jail term? Just curious about the legalities.
There's a related issue of whether the president can be indicted while in office. Many legal scholars say no, while others say yes, but there's nothing at all in the Consitution that says the president can't be indicted. If Trump is indicted, it will be up to him and his lawyers to make a case why the indictment should be tossed out, and it would once again fall to the Supreme Court to decide the issue. (My own, non-legal-expert view is that the Supreme Court would rule a president can indeed be indicted while in office, because, again, there's absolutely nothing in the Consitution that says he can't.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does impeachment result in serving jail term? Or he will just be removed from President’s post but as he has pardoned himself, there will be no jail term? Just curious about the legalities.
Impeachment results in removal from office, not jail time. Jail time could result from further criminal charges and proceedings but if he's been pardoned then no jail time (if the pardon is considered constitutional).