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1. Candidate DT violates federal criminal campaign finance laws by conspiring (as Individual 1) with his fixer, MC to get hush money through corporation A to a porn star, SD, to buy her silence & help him become POTUS months later.
2. As POTUS, he grants himself a “full and complete pardon for any federal crimes I may have committed in the past as to which the statute of limitations has not run.”
3. If the pardon power of Art II, sec 2 is read to be absolute & unbounded, any federal crimes that help a candidate without scruples to become POTUS will forever be shielded from prosecution.
4. And all federal crimes such a crooked POTUS commits while in power can similarly be given a permanent immunity bath.
5. So if the pardon power is bounded only by its own terms (eg, fed crimes only), it’s a bootstrapping device to put every POTUS above the law.
5. So if the pardon power is bounded only by its own terms (eg, fed crimes only), it’s a bootstrapping device to put every POTUS above the law.
6. But everyone agrees nobody is above the law in America.
7. Hence the pardon power must be limited not just by its own terms but by background premises that check all constitutionally granted powers.
8. Those premises must preclude self-pardons.
7. Hence the pardon power must be limited not just by its own terms but by background premises that check all constitutionally granted powers.
8. Those premises must preclude self-pardons.
QED
