Discussion: Sessions Doesn't Know If Preemptive Trump Pardons Would Be Appropriate

Sessions clearly doesn’t know anything, maybe he should just resign. :smile:

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Given that Trump has speculated about this, it is highly improbable that the has never thought about it, nor looked into it.

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“He later added that he would look into it and follow up with a written response to the committee.”

The check is in the mail.

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For someone who is supposed to be the country’s top legal/judicial expert, Sessions sure doesn’t know much . . . . .He’s either lying, forgetful or, if he’s actually telling the truth, too incompetent to hold his position.

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When speaking about Presidential pardon power, ‘appropriate’ is a word with no meaning or legal significance.

Art 2, Para 1 of the Constitution makes the power very broad,

The President…shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for
Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.

That’s it. That’s all the Constitution says on the subject.

The POTUS alone and in her or his sole discretion decides what is appropriate. And pardons have been used offensively by past Presidents. Most recently, President G.H.W. Bush pardoned Casper Weinberger and 5 others on the eve of trial to stop the Iran Contra prosecution dead in it’s tracks and no one really seemed to much care.

Plenty of Presidential pardons have been unseemly (Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich comes to mind) but as a legal matter, there’s no real limits (except in the case of impeachment), and any one who tells you otherwise is just engaging in navel gazing and wishful thinking.

If Trump pardons pretty much everyone including family (and he surely will), as a republic we have the power to not give him a second term assuming first term pardons and he even runs, and that’s pretty much it.

Beauregard…

“Well, the pardon power is quite broad. I’m not studied it. I do not know if that would be appropriate or not, frankly,” Sessions said. He later added that he would look into it and follow up with a written response to the committee.

Knowing what’s in the Constitution should not be that hard. It’s not 600+ pages like Gone With the Wind. You are after all a learned Constitutional scholar, correct? The least you could have done was have some crib notes with you. You knew what you were coming for.

Public Doesn’t Know If Preemptive Trump Institutionalization In Mental Hospital Would Be Appropriate