In the past few days, Trump has pardoned numerous people. What can we expect? What is he trying to do?
Although some of those whom he pardoned may have been deserving, I truly think his motivation is entirely self serving. Trump doesn't seem to have an ounce of real compassion.
His pardoning of the woman who was jailed decades ago for a non-violent drug offense was a direct result of Kim Kardashian. As much as I hate to say it, KK did a good thing, and what happens with Cheetolini is that he tends to go along with whatever the last suggestion he heard was. If I was that lady, I'd go to Canada and request asylum before he changes his mind.
Trump is pardoning people because he knows now that he is in deep trouble with Mueller and pardoning is now his only way out. A judge has given Cohen's lawyers just one week to finish going through the seized documents and tapes to discern which, if any, were truly about Cohen giving legal advice to clients. My understanding is that 98% of those documents and tapes are going to be ruled okay for Mueller to use. That's because Cohen wasn't so much a lawyer as a fixer, and only legal consultations are exempt from attorney-client privilege. (See Rachel Maddow's interview with an expert on this subject). This means that Trump's guilt is now going to be exposed.
So, now that he knows he's boxed into a corner with no escape from the law, Trump is using the only thing he's got left -- pardoning power. He has two, maybe three, motives:
1. He's trying to desensitize the public to his use of pardoning power by pardoning everyone and anyone he can. We know that he requested a long list of potential pardon candidates.
2. He's also trying to send a message to anyone who would testify against him that he can pardon them so they don't need to flip and testify against him.
3. He's also trying to curry favor with people by pardoning people he thinks might be able to support him later. Pardoning Kim Kardashian's friend is not going to work because Kanye and Kim's fans are progressive left leaning people. The effect will be Kanye and Kim will fall out of public favor rather than that they will help boost Trump.
But the main thing he's doing is desensitizing the public to the pardoning process. And ultimately he thinks he can pardon himself. But that will never work because:
First of all, he has to be found guilty in order to pardon himself. By the time he would be found guilty, he won't be president any more so he won't be able to pardon himself.
Also Mueller is much more clever than Trump. Mueller deliberately has indicted the 13 Russian nationals who hacked the U.S. elections. Those Russians would have to be extradited to the U.S. for Mueller to be able to fully prosecute. So these cases will stay on the books for years as active prosecution cases. While they are on the books, the the investigations of Trump and his cronies will also stay on the books as active investigations. This means that Trump will not be able to make the Russian collusion probe go away and there is no way that the public would ever allow Trump to pardon those 13 Russian nationals. So Trump is once again cornered.
Finally, unless this country goes full-scale totalitarian, the prevailing legal opinion is that a president cannot pardon himself. That would make him above the law. It also conflicts with the Constitutional intent that granted presidents pardoning power.
Wow. Every time I think I have a sense of how deep the rabbit hole goes, I'm proven wrong. This feels more like a political crime novel than reality.
I would add that many of the potential crimes can also be prosecuted at the state level and the President can't pardon someone with a state conviction.
Yes, Trump's home base, NY, has its work cut out for it. I have wondered whether the new State Attorney General, Barbara Underwood, would serve as a back-up to Mueller's prosecutions. The former AG, Eric Schneiderman, was working in tandem with Mueller to make sure presidential pardons would not enable people to get away with impunity. Now that he has resigned, I have to wonder if Underwood will take up the task. My cards say that Mueller feels good about her.
I want to add on to what Jeanne is saying by beginning with VOTE VOTE VOTE!!!
It's imperative that the GOP lose control of Congress (or at least half of it) after this year's general election in November. Why? Because Cheetolini and Rudeyani are hinting around, along with Rep. Kevin McCarthy (yes, from here in CA, I know...). They're already trying to desensitize everyone into accepting that the President is above the law, which he is not. The fear here is that IF the GOP maintains control, the first thing they will do is fire Mueller and then find ways to unravel all the stuff he has spread out, pardon everyone involved. I think there's a small chance that despite things being "on the books", they'd literally just tear up the laws/the Constitution. This would send us into a REAL constitutional crisis, as it would mean all-out totalitarianism at that point. At which point I, for one, would consider taking up arms and revolting.
As a psychological narcissist, every thing Trump does is self serving. He thrives on power and control. The ability to pardon someone when no one else can is incredibly powerful and ego building. He literally carries their fate in his hands. With one pen stroke he has the power to change their life forever. Add that to all of the other political ramifications and he is riding high and filled with such surges of power and control for that moment that it keeps him going until the overwhelming need for his fix, next high, next tweet comes in again.
He's also impotent, from what I gather, so this is the closest to orgasm Twitler can get.
As others have pointed out, it's all just self-serving work to keep the heat off of Trump. It will not cover up his crimes but there is a possibility that it could cause some people to soften up to him but I doubt it would be many who would.
I heard on the news tonight that they have 30 pardons prepared. They said he is going crazy with this because it is the only thing he can do that no one else can control. When a pardon is considered the whole case is usually gone over but Trump isn't going over anything, just giving out pardons.
The reason Obama didn't pardon this woman was because she was the head of a group that was dealing millions in drugs for the mob. It wasn't like she was a small time dealer. She was really a good person in jail so I'm on the side that I think she deserved the pardon.
I love that quote from Ghost!
Frannie, by "serious action" not sure what you mean. Are you asking about when Trump would be gone?
Yes serious action on part of him leaving