Wednesday, November 25, 2020

Pardons Do Not Protect The President

They only mean the pardoned cannot plead the 5th.

Nor is Trump going to pardon his way out of the Mueller investigation, a la Poppy Bush. Bush’s pardons shut down a prosecution that could have implicated him. But he was not directly involved enough without the cases he stopped proceeding to judgment, and he might never have been prosecuted anyway. The investigation was ongoing when he shut it down.

Mueller explicitly stated Trump could not be prosecuted for obstruction of justice while he was POTUS, but Mueller had evidence to prosecute. The investigation is finished, only a prosecution remains. Trump can still be prosecuted and Flynn and Manafort and even Stone can still be compelled to testify, or face prosecution all over again. Convictions and pardons have no effect here. Like Bush v Gore, the example of Poppy Bush has no application here.

2 comments:

  1. They should drag him in before the relevant House committees and they should go the route of having an experienced prosecutor do the questioning. When he lies, which he will, he will be criminally liable.

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