March 28, 2024

Rudy Goes Big for Monarchy: Says Trump “Probably Does” Have Power to Pardon Himself



President Donald Trump’s lead attorney Rudy Giuliani said on Sunday morning that the commander-in-chief “probably does” have the power to pardon himself. (Photo: Screenshot/ABC News)


“If this sounds like tyranny to you, that’s because it is.”


By Jon Queally / 06.03.2018



“He has no intention of pardoning himself, but that doesn’t say he can’t.”

That’s what President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed Sunday morning on ABC‘s “This Week” after he was asked directly by host George Stephanopoulos if the president’s current legal team believes the president has the power to pardon himself.

Watch:

The question came in the wake of a leaked legal memo Trump’s lawyers sent to Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller earlier this year—obtained by the New York Times and published on Saturday—which stated their belief that Trump cannot be charged with obstruction of justice and retains sweeping pardon powers when it comes to all federal prosecutions, including ones for which even the president himself might be a subject.

Responding to Giuliani’s comments, former federal prosecutor Preet Bharara told CNN‘s Dana Bash that “If the President decided he was going to pardon himself, that’s almost self-executing impeachment.”

And Renato Mariotti, another former federal prosecutor, retorted, “If this sounds like tyranny to you, that’s because it is.”


Originally published by Common Dreams under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 license.