Donald Trump is said to be obsessed with presidential pardon.
CNN reports that barely elected in January 2017, he casually asked his advisers if he could pardon himself.
"I have the absolute right to FORGIVE myself, but why would I do this when I haven't done anything wrong?"
»He
tweets in 2018. Today«
lame duck
“, Formula used to designate a defeated president before the inauguration of his successor, Donald Trump sees his room for maneuver reduced.
He can still use his last days in the White House to exercise his ultimate right as President of the United States: to amend or commute a federal sentence at his will.
His former adviser Michael Flynn will thus benefit from this favor, Donald Trump announced Wednesday, November 25.
The first of a list of relatives of the president who could well be pardoned ... in a final snub to his detractors.
Article II of the US Constitution grants presidents "
the power to grant stays and pardons for offenses against the United States
", except in cases of impeachment proceedings.
This privilege, the Supreme Court said, is "
granted without limit
" as long as the sentence is federal, without Congress being able to fault it.
In general, presidents have used this law to "
smooth out the rough edges of criminal justice,"
writes for CNN Mark Olser, former federal prosecutor and professor of law at the University of St. Thomas (Minnesota).
It is in fact to recover those forgotten by penal reforms, or the victims of miscarriage of justice.
After the Vietnam War, for example, thousands of deserters were pardoned by President Gerald Ford.
By granting clemency to more than 200 people during these two terms, Obama used this right to pardon petty criminals convicted of drug-related offenses to make up for the impossibility of reforming a very strict criminal policy in this area. narcotics.
To read also: Barack Obama, bad language
The pardons of the last days of the presidency have often been the most controversial, with the president freed from the political weight of the election period.
Bill Clinton thus waited until the last hours of this mandate to grant clemency to Mark Rich, a donor of the Democratic Party prosecuted for tax evasion who had fled to Switzerland.
“The end of any presidential administration is the time for intense lobbying related to pardons,”
writes
The New York Times
.
"But in Donald Trump's case, this extends to his own personal and political considerations, and to his lingering bitterness over the Russia inquiry."
Getting out of the Russia Gate, and other business
The full pardon granted to Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser who fell for his collusion with Russian diplomats, paves the way for a list of leniency contenders among those close to the president involved in the various cases in which he is involved.
Campaign advisers Rick Gates and Georges Papadopoulos, also sentenced following the report of special prosecutor Robert Mueller on suspicion of Russian interference, hope to benefit from the presidential pardon.
"
The president knows how much those of us who worked for him have suffered, and I hope he will take that into consideration if and when he grants pardons,"
Rick Gates told The
New York Times
.
Also circulating the name of Paul Manafort, the former campaign president sentenced to seven years in prison for obstructing justice and violating financial laws in lobbying cases, lawyer Michael Cohen, convicted of having bought in 2016 with Illegal funds the silence of women who claimed to have had sexual relations with the presidential candidate, but also Roger J. Stone, his friend and long-time adviser whose prison sentence was already commuted last July.
Some also mention Steve Bannon, his former strategist, indicted for "
scamming donations
" as part of a campaign to build a wall on the border with Mexico, and Elliott Broidy, guilty of a lobbying case at the 'foreign.
“This could include those convicted of or suspected of wrongdoing associated with his 2016 campaign;
those who approved of Trump's alleged quackery ploy in Ukraine, the subject of his impeachment trial;
and those suspected of inappropriate transactions in relation to Trump companies
,
”
summarizes the Washington Post.
Up to pardoning himself to escape the many affairs that await him when he leaves the White House?
The legality of the procedure divides the American experts.
The Ministry of Justice had also declared in 1974 that autograce "
seems
" to be prohibited
"by virtue of the fundamental rule according to which no one can be a judge in his own case"
.
The president could in any case pardon himself only at the federal level, and should always face the trials which await him in New York for facts, among others, of tax evasion.
The hypothesis of a deal with Joe Biden to obtain from him a presidential pardon in exchange for a facilitated succession is more raised by the editorialists.
Leniency under the influence
In the meantime, the White House welcomes intense lobbying among candidates for leniency.
In February, the
Washington Post
revealed that an informal task force led by President's son-in-law Jared Kushner was meeting to consider pardon requests, where the process has traditionally been conducted by the Justice Department.
During the Trump presidency, 28 people were pardoned and 16 had their sentences commuted.
Conservative supporters, early loyalists or longtime friends, for the most part.
Among the pardoned, for example, is the
“toughest sheriff in America”
, Joe Arpaio, convicted of his discriminatory practices in Arizona against people he suspected of being immigrants.
There's also conservative political scientist Dinesh D'Souza, former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who appeared on the reality TV show
Celebrity Apprentice
hosted by Donald Trump, or Bernard Kerik, a Fox News regular
.
"
Of the 41 people who received pardons or commutations (or both) of Mr. Trump, 36 (or
88%
) have a personal connection or policy with the president
"
,
analyzes the Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith columns of the
New York Times
.
The lawyer called that Congress adopt measures to restrict the right of pardon: "
It may be that the pardons to Mr. Trump prove so abusive that a constitutional amendment to forgiveness can be justified
"
,
he wrote.
"
This is one of the many ways that Mr. Trump's abuse of presidential power will have lasting consequences for American justice."