re: #273 Welcome to The Imbleachment (dangerman)

A short rant on this idea of Pence pardoning a just resigned Trump.

Putting aside whether it’s legal because, sigh, it probably is, unless there’s actual obstruction of justice going on….

Nixon was fully investigated. He was about to be impeached, and get convicted.
So he resigned (with encouragement).
Then Ford pardoned him.
Nixon and Ford did not ‘negotiate’ it in advance.
In fact Nixon was reluctant to accept it, then did agree to.

Trump, on the other hand, was impeached and not convicted.

He hasn’t been investigated for anything else. Because the Senate won’t. Certainly Barr and the DOJ won’t. And the entire admin won’t honor any subpoena from the House.

Forget whatever is in the news; it doesn’t count.

There is nothing identified or pending. No one’s looking at him for anything federal. There is no investigation of anything.

So what could Trump et al possibly think he needs to be ‘protected’ from with a preemptive pardon?

You don’t just pardon ‘just in case’ of some mythical future ‘witch hunt’.
(OK, maybe they do.)

He/they have to think he did something wrong that needs pardoning. (Yeah, like just one thing.)

Isn’t accepting a pardon officially admitting you’d done something illegal that requires said pardon? Not to mention that if pardoned Trump would immediately get subpoenas to testify in all sort of investigations, where he couldn’t take the 5th to prevent self-incrimination since he’d been pardoned for it. And then he’d almost immediately perjury himself on the stand - and the pardon wouldn’t cover that.