Grassley: Trump should get new lawyer if told he can pardon himself
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said on Monday that President Trump should get a new lawyer if he’s been told that he can pardon himself.
“If I were president of the United States and I had a lawyer that told me I could pardon myself, I think I would hire a new lawyer,” Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told CNN when asked if Trump had the ability to pardon himself.
{mosads}Trump, during an early morning tweet, poured fuel on the debate over whether he can use his presidential powers to protect himself if Mueller accuses him of wrongdoing in the probe into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“As has been stated by numerous legal scholars, I have the absolute right to PARDON myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?” the president wrote in the tweet.
The issue of a potential pardon is back in the spotlight after The New York Times published a January letter from the president’s legal team over the weekend that opened the door to Trump pardoning himself.
Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told ABC News’s “This Week” that the president “probably” does have the power to issue himself a pardon, but warned that it would spark political backlash.
“I think the political ramifications of that would be tough. Pardoning other people is one thing. Pardoning yourself is another,” Giuliani said.
Lawmakers in both parties are warning Trump against trying to pardon himself.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Sunday the president should not pardon himself.
“The president is not saying he is going to pardon himself. The president never said he pardoned himself,” McCarthy told CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I don’t think a president should pardon themselves.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) added in a tweet on Monday: “Only in a two-bit tin horn totalitarian dictatorship could the President even consider pardoning himself from all accountability.”
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