We should not speak of Trump pardoning himself as if that’s a legitimate power he would have, rather than a batshit crazy end run around the obvious intention of the Constitution.
And in any case, he’s been convinced to state crimes, and there’s no legal theory to support the idea that he can pardon himself or anyone else for state crimes.
Most crimes have a State and Federal equivalent. The legal particulars of a case deciding which variant a suspect gets charged with. For example a State may have a charge for ‘Intent to Distribute Narcotics’ which a suspect with 10kilos of coke gets arrested for during a traffic stop. The investigation reveals the suspect had driven into the charging state from an adjacent one. Boom: Federal charge now.
In Trump’s case they may try, or have tried, to argue that it is a federal case due to the relation to interfering with the national election. IMO this will strongly suggest the pardon plan is their intent because Federal cases are more severe, with higher penalties and stronger conviction rates than their equivalent State variants. The only reason I can see wanting to risk greater penalties is the possibility of getting SCOTUS to rule on the appeal and that Trump could pardon himself if elected.
We should not speak of Trump pardoning himself as if that’s a legitimate power he would have, rather than a batshit crazy end run around the obvious intention of the Constitution.
And in any case, he’s been convinced to state crimes, and there’s no legal theory to support the idea that he can pardon himself or anyone else for state crimes.
No but he could pardon himself on any federal charge. It’s not crazy talk
We should assume he pocket pardoned both himself and any person who went ballistic trying to make their state charges federal ones.
Not sure what you mean about making state charges into federal ones
Most crimes have a State and Federal equivalent. The legal particulars of a case deciding which variant a suspect gets charged with. For example a State may have a charge for ‘Intent to Distribute Narcotics’ which a suspect with 10kilos of coke gets arrested for during a traffic stop. The investigation reveals the suspect had driven into the charging state from an adjacent one. Boom: Federal charge now. In Trump’s case they may try, or have tried, to argue that it is a federal case due to the relation to interfering with the national election. IMO this will strongly suggest the pardon plan is their intent because Federal cases are more severe, with higher penalties and stronger conviction rates than their equivalent State variants. The only reason I can see wanting to risk greater penalties is the possibility of getting SCOTUS to rule on the appeal and that Trump could pardon himself if elected.