WP: If he'll pardon Arpaio, why wouldn't Trump pardon those who ignore Robert Mueller?

[highplainsdem]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/08/25/if-hell-pardon-arpaio-why-wouldnt-trump-pardon-those-who-ignore-robert-mueller/

The broader question raised by the pardon, then, is where Trump would draw the line. If he’s willing to pardon Joe Arpaio for ignoring a court order in service of a political goal Trump embraces, why wouldn’t he pardon another individual he respects for similarly ignoring a demand from the court. Say, a former employee or a family member who, say, was issued a subpoena to testify before a special prosecutor?

One message from the Arpaio pardon is precisely that Trump sees his evaluation of the boundaries of legality as superior to the boundaries set by the legal system. The Constitution gives him that power. As we’ve noted before the presidential pardon is absolute. He can pardon anyone for any federal crime at any time — even before the person actually faces any charges and even if no crime actually took place. And there’s nothing anyone can do about it, except to impeach Trump and remove him from office to prevent him from doing it again. (The president who replaces him might be able to revoke a recent pardon, one expert told us, but it’s far from certain.)

In other words, if any of Trump’s allies decides to tell special prosecutor Robert Mueller to stick his subpoena in the south side of the National Mall, Mueller can press a court for contempt charges. The person could be convicted of those charges — and then get a pardon identical to Arpaio’s.

[winstars]

1. The President has a lot of power we have never seen used. He knows that. We are fucked. nt

[Iliyah]

2. Nope, Mueller knows this and it will backfire on t-rump & company.

[fallout87]

7. I hope so too

But how?

[ThoughtCriminal]

10. If they are pardoned, they can be forced to testify

and they will not be able to invoke the 5th Amendment.

[TDale313]

3. This was a trial balloon.

He wanted to pardon Arpaio, but he also wanted to test the waters. See how much pushback he'd get for this kind of pardon circumventing the process.

[ecstatic]

4. Congress needs to act NOW before he gets the chance to pardon

a traitor. If they allow that to happen, the USA as we know it is done. RIP

[tableturner]

5. While power to pardon is absolute, a president CAN commit another crime via the use of the pardon.

An example could be a situation in which a president tells someone that if he gives the president a million dollars, he will pardon that person's son. The president would be allowed to issue the pardon.....that is absolute......but the issuance of the pardon in such a circumstance would clearly be a crime. The crime would NOT be "pardoning".....instead, it would be bribery.

A president could make an arrangement with somebody to kill a political foe, the signal for which would be the pardoning of an otherwise unconnected person. Again, in such a circumstance, a president would have the absolute power to pardon, so the crime would not be "pardoning", but instead would be conspiracy to commit murder and/or murder itself, if the execution of the crime were to be successful.

Using pardons to keep witnesses from testifying against him would definitely be a crime of obstruction of justice even though he would have the right to issue the pardons in the first place.

[radius777]

9. exactly, and can be impeached as a result,

especially if a president were to pardon people involved in a ongoing case against himself.

[uponit7771]

6. He will, there's no crime ... Benedict Donald has no sense of patriotism or shame

[shraby]

8. A person pardoned can still be made to testify and can't take the 5th anymore because

they've been pardoned. They have to answer the questions and if they lie, oh well, they can still go to jail for a lie.
That's called perjury and is a crime. (new crime they haven't been pardoned for.)