Donald Trump urged to protect his family with pardons

Donald Trump is being urged to use his powers of pardon for himself and his family members.

Legal experts say Donald Trump would have to list specific crimes, and doubt whether he could place himself above the law in order to pardon himself. Picture: AFP

President Trump is being urged by his allies to use his powers of pardon for himself and his family members to block a “witch-hunt” by the Democrats once he leaves office.

There is a long tradition of US presidents issuing a batch of pardons at the end of their tenure. Sean Hannity, a Fox News presenter, and Matt Gaetz, a Florida congressman, are pressing him publicly to follow suit.

Mr Trump, 74, has tweeted about a potential self-pardon, although legal experts say he would have to list specific crimes, and doubt whether he could place himself above the law indefinitely.

He has taken advice on pre-emptive pardons for his three eldest children and son-in-law Jared Kushner, according to The New York Times and NBC News. They said Rudy Giuliani, his personal lawyer, is also under consideration for a pardon, although for what, exactly, is not clear.

The US constitution gives the president the ability to pardon federal crimes and has been used presumptively, most notoriously when Gerald Ford issued a full and unconditional pardon for his predecessor Richard Nixon in 1974, after the Watergate scandal. However, no president has tried to pardon himself, meaning that the issue has not been tested in court.

“The president, out the door, needs to pardon his whole family and himself,” Mr Hannity said on his radio show. “I assume that the power of the pardon is absolute, and that he should be able to pardon anybody that he wants.”

Former US National Security adviser General Michael Flynn. Picture: AFP

On his TV program Mr Hannity referred to an article in The New York Times by Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor in Robert Mueller’s inquiry into Russian election interference, which called for Mr Trump to be investigated for “potential federal crimes”. Mr Hannity said: “They want this witch-hunt to go on in perpetuity. They’re so full of rage and insanity.”

Mr Trump retweeted a post from Mr Gaetz last month urging him to pardon himself. In June 2018 the president also tweeted: “As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?”

Last week he pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who retracted a guilty plea of lying to the FBI but was still being considered for prosecution. Mr Flynn, 61, a retired three-star Lieutenant-General, claimed that he was set up. In July Mr Trump commuted the jail sentence of Roger Stone, a friend and adviser convicted, among other things, of lying to Congress.

Ben Ginsberg, a lawyer who has represented the Republican Party, told CNN: “There is nothing to stop a president of the United States from pardoning whoever he wants to with the possible exception of himself but it is usual in the pardon document itself to spell out what the person is being pardoned from. You are in fact saying there is something I need to be pardoned from.”

The pardon debate coincided with a federal judge unsealing court papers on Wednesday revealing an investigation into a potential bribery-for-pardon scheme. The 18-page document, drawn up in August, with all names redacted, outlined a scheme to send a sizeable donation through an intermediary in exchange for a presidential pardon or “reprieve of sentence”. No charges have yet been brought.

Mr Trump tweeted soon afterwards: “Pardon investigation is Fake News!”

The Times