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Giuliani Claims Trump Has the Power to Pardon Himself

HeadlineJun 04, 2018

President Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani claimed Sunday that Trump has the power to pardon himself.

Rudy Giuliani: “It’s not going to happen, so it’s a hypothetical point. I think the presidential power—there’s nothing that limits the presidential power of pardon from a federal crime, not a state crime. President Trump is not going to do that. He’s obviously not going to give up any of his pardon powers or any other future president’s pardon powers, but under these circumstances he’s not going to do that.”

Giuliani made the claims only one day after The New York Times published a 20-page letter written by Trump’s lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller, in which his lawyers claim Trump is above the law and thus cannot have illegally obstructed the Mueller investigation. In the January 29 letter, they claim, “It remains our position that the President’s actions here, by virtue of his position as the chief law enforcement officer, could neither constitutionally nor legally constitute obstruction because that would amount to him obstructing himself, and that he could, if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon if he so desired.”

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