Legal Eagles on DU I have a question.

[redstatebluegirl]

I was told this morning by a friend that if conspiracy is part of the indictment and if Trump is a possible co-conspirator, he can't pardon Manafort is this true?

[PoliticAverse]

1. That's speculation. There's no "co-conspirator" exclusion to the pardon power in the Constitution

specifically.

Whether the current Supreme Court would find that to be an exception to the President's power
we'd only know for sure after such a case was decided by the court.

[redstatebluegirl]

2. Thank you, lots of bad info out there.

[marylandblue]

3. I think the "can't" is more of a political issue

Not that it would stop Trump, but pardoning your co-conspirators would normally look pretty suspicious.

[DonaldsRump]

4. Not at all

A US President has awesome powers to pardon for federal criminal offenses and can even pardon where no charge has been lodged (for example, Ford in 1974 and his pardon of Nixon).

Nixon himself was named as an unindicted co-conspirator (primarily because of the constitutional difficulties in indicting a sitting President), but he would have still been capable of pardoning his co-conspirators like Haldeman etc.

The only limit that I am aware of is whether a President can pardon him/herself, which has not been definitively answered. We may get an answer to that from this mess...

[Jersey Devil]

5. No limits on the pardon power under the Constitution

The President can pardon anyone for any crime, even if they have not been charged yet (i.e. Ford's pardon of Nixon). There is no exception for conspiracy charges or any other types of charges.

[bluepen]

6. Nope.