Saturday, December 12, 2020

Trump Pardoning Self and Biden Pardoning Trump

It has been written that Pres. Trump should be allowed to pardon himself and thus avoid a long-protracted political battle while Pres. Biden tries to right the ship of state.
Perhaps it would be better to let Pres. Trump pardon himself, then have new Pres. Biden offer a conditional pardon, while noting that self-pardoning is a perversion of the pardoning process.
The condition would be that former Pres. Trump must name the crimes he has committed. (President Trump will have implicitly admitted to criminal activity by giving himself a pardon for crimes committed.) Then he would also agree “to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth” in any and all investigations by the legislative and executive branches of the Federal government.

Former Pres. Trump would also have to pay back taxes, fees, and penalties due the government. Whatever he says would not be used against him in other jurisdictions (the states), but could be used against those he implicates in his confessions.