Questions are being raised as to whether Donald Trump may be able to receive, or even give himself, a pardon if he's convicted of a crime, amid speculation the former president is facing a fourth indictment.
Trump has already pleaded not guilty to dozens of charges in relation to three criminal investigations, and he is due to face trial in potentially all of them in the coming months.
The former president, who has long denied any wrongdoing and called the inquiries into him politically motivated "witch hunts," is also strongly rumored to soon be facing an indictment in Georgia under Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' 2020 election interference investigation.
Newsweek has examined the steps that would need to be taken in order for Trump to be pardoned if he were convicted in each case, as well as the likelihood of it occurring.
January 6/Classified Documents Case
Trump has been charged in two separate federal indictments this year that are headed by Special Counsel Jack Smith. The former president has pleaded not guilty to 40 charges related to allegations he illegally retained top secret materials after he left the White House in January 2021, then willfully obstructed the federal attempt to retrieve them.
Trump has also pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, obstruction of, and attempt to obstruct, an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights in connection to the investigation into the events that led up to the January 6 attack.
The classified documents trial is scheduled to begin in May 2024. Smith's team have also requested that Trump's trial over his alleged attempts to overturn the last election results should begin on January 2, 2024, just days before the first-in-the-nation GOP primary caucus takes place in Iowa on January 15.
The timing of the trials means that Trump, the frontrunner in the GOP primary, could be convicted in two federal cases before the next general election arrives in November 2024.
The only person who can pardon a defendant convicted of a federal crime is the sitting president, who in this case would be Joe Biden. While there have been discussions that Biden could decide to pardon Trump, this appears unlikely.
Speaking on his Stay Tuned podcast, Preet Bharara, a former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, described the chances of Biden pardoning Trump in either federal case as "very, very low, vanishingly low, close to zero if not zero."
Trump could pardon himself if he wins the 2024 election once he enters office in January 2025. However, as noted by attorney and legal political analyst Andrew Lieb, such a move is unprecedented in U.S. history and therefore hard to predict.
"It's not a sure thing as no court has ever ruled on the power of a president to pardon himself," Lieb told Newsweek.
Elsewhere, several Republicans who are also challenging for the 2024 nomination have vowed to pardon Trump if elected president, such as businessman and investor Vivek Ramaswamy and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson states he would not pardon Trump if he succeeded in his long-shot bid to become president.
Falsifying Business Records Case
On April 4, Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's probe
The charges relate to a $130,000 sum Trump allegedly arranged with his former attorney Michael Cohen to pay adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep an alleged affair the pair had secret ahead of the 2016 election. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels in 2006.
The trial is due to begin in March 2024 in New York, right in the middle of GOP primary season and weeks after Super Tuesday, where 15 states go to the primary polls.
New York is one of the states where the governor has the power to grant clemency and pardon those who have been convicted of crimes under New York State law, which in this case would be Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul.
Bharara suggested that the likelihood of Hochul pardoning Trump if he is convicted in Bragg's case "is even lower than the likelihood of Biden doing the same."
Trump couldn't pardon himself in New York if convicted if he were to re-enter the White House as it isn't a federal case.
Georgia Election Case
There has been long running speculation that Trump will soon be charged as part of Fulton County DA Willis' expansive probe into attempts to overturn the state's 2020 election results.
It has recently been reported by The New York Times and The Guardian that Willis will present evidence to a grand jury and ask them to bring forward an indictment against Trump and others as early as Tuesday, August 15.
Just like in New York, Trump couldn't pardon himself in Georgia as president if he goes on to be convicted in the case.
However, unlike in New York, Georgia's governor, Brian Kemp, doesn't have the power to issue pardons.
Instead, that authority is granted by the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles, an independent five-person panel appointed by the governor, which is led by Republican Terry E. Barnard.
It's unclear whether the panel would take steps to pardon Trump in a case he has yet to be charged over.
Elsewhere, Lieb speculated about an extreme scenario where Hochul refuses to pardon Trump in New York, but he is able to pardon himself in the federal cases and is granted one in Georgia.
"Imagine a world where Trump loses all cases, but wins election, and then, pardons himself on the federal crimes, which is subsequently upheld by SCOTUS," Lieb told Newsweek.
"Then, imagine Republic Georgia offers him a pardon, but New York refuses. Would a, then, President Trump withdraw New York from the United States? If he did, what would the remaining Blue States do?"
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Ewan Palmer is a Newsweek News Reporter based in London, U.K. His focus is reporting on US politics, domestic policy ... Read more
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