Could Trump run for office if convicted and pardon himself if elected?

[Kamaji]

Could Trump run for office if convicted and pardon himself if elected?

By Jesse O’Neill
August 2, 2023

Donald Trump’s political future had plenty of life left a day after he was indicted on four federal charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The 77-year-old former president and current 2024 GOP frontrunner now faces 78 felony charges in three separate cases that could see him sentenced to prison for hundreds of years if convicted.

Additional election interference charges may also be handed down later this month by prosecutors in Georgia.

Trump has vowed to continued his campaign for a second non-consecutive White House term, and had actually seen his poll numbers buoyed by his indictments.

No US president had ever before been hit with criminal charges, but there is nothing in the Constitution that specifically bars Trump from seeking office if he were convicted, a scenario that is not without precedent.

In 1920, perennial Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs ran for the White House while imprisoned for sedition in connection with protesting US involvement in World War I.

He received 913,000 votes, 3.4% of the electorate at that time.

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Source:  https://nypost.com/2023/08/02/could-trump-run-for-office-if-convicted-and-pardon-himself-if-elected/

[DefiantMassRINO]

We'll see.  Trump is certainly giving Constitutional "scholars" a run for their money.

Trump has made me more of a Federalist states rights person.

Trump has demonstrated the Foudning Fathers' greatest admonitions against the abuses of a strong, centralized Federal Government.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

We'll see.  Trump is certainly giving Constitutional "scholars" a run for their money.

Trump has made me more of a Federalist states rights person.

Trump has demonstrated the Foudning Fathers' greatest admonitions against the abuses of a strong, centralized Federal Government.

I'm guessing that SCOTUS would shoot down self-pardons.  To use the example I used in the other thread, if a President flat-out murdered two people on federal property, could he simply pardon himself and then be in the clear?  I think SCOTUS would look at that scenario and think that nobody in their right mind would have intended that.

[bigheadfred]

I don't know if a president can self pardon. He would be making himself a judge in his own case.

Also, he can only issue pardons for violations of federal law and not state law. So he would be on the hook for the NY case, and I believe the upcoming Georgia case.

[libertybele]

I'm not sure if he could run if convicted, but according to the Constitution the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment", so I'd say yes, he can pardon himself.

[catfish1957]

And he will say he only gives the best pardons.

Or they will be perfect pardons.   

[catfish1957]

I'm not sure if he could run if convicted, but according to the Constitution the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment", so I'd say yes, he can pardon himself.

Actually saw that unless he is convicted of some form of sedition or other trasonous federal capital offense, that nothing precludes him being POTUS again.

[jmyrlefuller]

Actually saw that unless he is convicted of some form of sedition or other trasonous federal capital offense, that nothing precludes him being POTUS again.

The idea is based on previous court precedent that said states and Congress couldn't put further restrictions on eligibility for Congress than what was already in the Constitution.

But there's also a totally separate precedent when it comes to the Electoral College, where states have almost universally been allowed to turn them into effective sham elections. That came into play after 2016. So in theory, a state could forbid its electors from voting for a convicted felon, the same way around half the states order their electors to vote for the popular vote winner.

[Hoodat]

Trump would be doing us all a great disservice if he pardons himself.  He needs to fight these cases out in court and win on merit, reestablishing the rule of law.  That won't happen with a pardon.

[Lando Lincoln]

Trump would be doing us all a great disservice if he pardons himself.  He needs to fight these cases out in court and win on merit, reestablishing the rule of law.  That won't happen with a pardon.

Yes. Point well made and correct.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

I'm not sure if he could run if convicted, but according to the Constitution the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment", so I'd say yes, he can pardon himself.

I'm not going to do all the digging myself, but this is the exact kind of issue where courts will ask "what was the common understanding of the scope of the pardon power at the time the Constitution was drafted", and that's mean digging back into English common law.  And I'm willing to bet there isn't a single example of a King pardoning himself.

Again, just think of a common sense application here. If you truly believe that a president could pardon himself, then he could rape and murder multiple women in the White House, pardon himself, and nobody could do a damn thing to him other than remove him from office.

Does that make sense to anyone?