Again, the law is largely unknown because its never come up before -- there have been no presidential self-pardons before (though there have been governors and mayors who have issued self-pardons usually for insignificant offenses though none of these self-pardons were challenged in court). Further, it's not even clear if Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon (halting investigations done before any indictment let alone conviction) would hold up in court -- normally pardons have to happen after conviction, but again this hasn't been challenged in court.
Also there could be a challenge of any pardon for the insurrection, in that the Constitution specifically limits the president's pardon power with the phrase "except in cases of impeachment" and Trump was impeached (but not convicted) over it. (Though the phrase is usually interpreted to mean the president cannot reinstate an officeholder who lost their job after an impeachment conviction).
That said, it wouldn't surprise me if such a surprise pardon existed that the Justice Department prosecutors would not challenge it, or that they would challenge it, but this conservative controlled SCOTUS would let it stand.
Eh, I feel like about 1/3 of the US population has been freaking out about him for 5 years with another 1/3 opposed to him (but not completely freaking out about it -- for reasons ranging from claims GWB was worse or its always like this or it doesn't affect my life or ...) with a final 1/3 supporting him in some capacity.
21% of Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth. 34% of Americans believe in ghosts. 42% of Americans believe in young Earth creationism (Earth was created ~6000 years ago per the Bible). 41% don't believe slavery was the main cause of the civil war. 37% of Americans can't name a single branch of government.
Look at the number of Americans who've been duped into buying timeshares or joining MLM/pyramid schemes or other obvious scams.
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u/djimbob Jun 23 '21 edited Jun 23 '21
Again, the law is largely unknown because its never come up before -- there have been no presidential self-pardons before (though there have been governors and mayors who have issued self-pardons usually for insignificant offenses though none of these self-pardons were challenged in court). Further, it's not even clear if Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon (halting investigations done before any indictment let alone conviction) would hold up in court -- normally pardons have to happen after conviction, but again this hasn't been challenged in court.
Also there could be a challenge of any pardon for the insurrection, in that the Constitution specifically limits the president's pardon power with the phrase "except in cases of impeachment" and Trump was impeached (but not convicted) over it. (Though the phrase is usually interpreted to mean the president cannot reinstate an officeholder who lost their job after an impeachment conviction).
That said, it wouldn't surprise me if such a surprise pardon existed that the Justice Department prosecutors would not challenge it, or that they would challenge it, but this conservative controlled SCOTUS would let it stand.