PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — As Congress weighs impeachment and the 25th Amendment, there are reports President Donald Trump is considering a pardon of himself. But can he do that?
The Constitution doesn’t specify whether a president can pardon themselves.
“The Constitution grants a really broad power to pardon,” explained Temple University law professor Craig Green, who specializes in constitutional law.
“Back in the Nixon era, the Department of Justice wrote a memo and it said in their legal opinion, the president could not pardon themselves because no one can be the judge in his own case,” Green said.
He said that’s the reason President Richard Nixon resigned — Gerald Ford, his vice president, was able to pardon Nixon after he left the White House.
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“The ability to pardon someone is to license someone’s law breaking. No one needs a pardon unless they have broken the law, unless they are at risk of prosecution,” Green said.
And that, he said, is only for federal crimes, which may have been committed, but not for any wrongdoing in the future.
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