New York Attorney General Letitia James claimed on Tuesday that President Donald Trump would step down from office before this term ends in order for Vice President Mike Pence to pardon him.
.@NewYorkStateAG @TishJames tells @TheView she suspects Pres. Trump “will step down and allow the vice president to pardon him” before the end of his term as she says the “vast majority of legal scholars have indicated that he cannot pardon himself.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/xeJwNtA4eH
— The View (@TheView) December 8, 2020
Multiple mainstream media reports have suggested Trump is considering pardoning himself and other members of his family before he leaves office, although the logistics of the move remain unclear.
The claims of Trump using it for himself are complicated by the fact that he has not been formally accused of a crime—despite James’ sustained efforts and those of other partisan prosecutors to investigate him relentlessly.
Trump has denied the baseless allegations of criminal misconduct promoted by his political adversaries.
But James argued during an interview with “The View” that he does want to protect himself from the political investigations being conducted by her office.
“He can preemptively pardon individuals, and the vast majority of legal scholars have indicated that he cannot pardon himself,” James said. “What he could do is step down and allow the vice president—Vice President Pence—to pardon him.
“I suspect at some point in time he will step down and allow the vice president to pardon him,” she added later.
James opened an investigation last year into Trump’s businesses and his family’s connections to Deutsche Bank.
Although the investigation is a civil one, James has already suggested it could turn into a criminal investigation if her office discovers anything that indicates criminal activity took place.
Several recent presidents—most notably Bill Clinton—have drawn criticism and scandal for their 11th-hour use of the presidential pardon power to absolve friends and political patrons.
The closest historical parallel for Trump would be President Gerald Ford’s pardoning of his predecessor, Richard Nixon, after the latter’s 1974 resignation during the Watergate scandal.
However, evidence at the time had publicly implicated Nixon in potential criminal conduct, which would have likely moved forward in a congressional investigation if Ford had not put an end to the probe through his preemptive pardon.
Legal experts who do not think Trump could hypothetically pardon himself rely on a 1974 Justice Department memo that stated Nixon “cannot pardon himself.”
“If under the Twenty-Fifth Amendment the President declared that he was temporarily unable to perform the duties of the office, the Vice President would become Acting President and as such could pardon the President,” the memo read. “Thereafter the President could either resign or resume the duties of his office.”
Headline USA’s Ben Sellers contributed to this report.
