Slate, from 1998: "Can The President Pardon Himself?"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Written in 1998 in reference to Bill Clinton, just as relevant a question today in light of Bush and PlameGate.

Can President Clinton Pardon Himself?
Bruce Gottlieb
Posted Wednesday, Dec. 30, 1998, at 3:46 PM PT

http://slate.msn.com/id/1002012/

President Clinton promised this month not to pardon himself. It's surprising to see Clinton voluntarily relinquish a legal weapon, but even more surprising that he had his hands on it in the first place. Can the president really pardon himself?

No one knows the answer. The Constitution says that the president "shall have the power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment." This sentence, like many in the Constitution, can reasonably be interpreted in several ways. And since no court has ruled on this issue--because no president has ever tried to pardon himself--it remains an open question.

The simplest interpretation is that the president can pardon any federal criminal offense, including his own, but cannot pardon an impeachment. In other words, Clinton is free to immunize himself from criminal prosecution, but has no power over Congress.

A competing interpretation is that the power to pardon "except in cases of impeachment" means the president cannot pardon someone who's been impeached, or at least cannot pardon the offenses which led to an impeachment. This interpretation not only prohibits Clinton from self-pardoning, it also prohibits a future president (e.g. Al Gore) from pardoning Clinton. (It was kosher for Ford to immunize Nixon, under this interpretation, because Nixon was never impeached.) The problem with this argument is that the Constitution elsewhere (Article I, Section 3) makes a distinction between "cases of impeachment" and subsequent criminal prosecution for the same offenses. So it's unlikely that the founding fathers were referring to the subsequent criminal prosecution when they restricted the power to pardon.

...More at the URL above....

[Burning Water]

1. My own interpretation,

for what it's worth, is that the President can pardon and criminal convictions that result from whatever crimes resulted in impeachment. He cannot, however, pardon the conviction onimpeachment. The only punishment for conviction on impeachment is removal from office. He can't pardon that. You've covered that I think.

MY problem has always been, how do you pardon someone who hasn't been convicted of anything? I think the pardon should wait for the trial.