Can’t pardon until indicted and convicted. Therefore, can’t pardon himself.Nonsense!
"The President . . . shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment."
(Article II, Section 2, Clause 1)
Justice Stephen Field wrote in Ex parte Garland (1867), "If granted before conviction, it prevents any of the penalties and disabilities consequent upon conviction from attaching [thereto]; if granted after conviction, it removes the penalties and disabilities, and restores him to all his civil rights; it makes him, as it were, a new man, and gives him a new credit and capacity…. A pardon reaches both the punishment prescribed for the offence and the guilt of the offender…so that in the eye of the law the offender is as innocent as if he had never committed the offence."
According to United States v. Klein (1871), Congress cannot limit the President's grant of an amnesty or pardon.
Thanks for the education … I shall research further. ;-)
“Justice Stephen Field wrote in Ex parte Garland (1867), “If granted before conviction, it prevents any of the penalties and disabilities consequent upon conviction from attaching [thereto]; if granted after conviction, it removes the penalties and disabilities, and restores him to all his civil rights; it makes him, as it were, a new man, and gives him a new credit and capacity…. A pardon reaches both the punishment prescribed for the offence and the guilt of the offender…so that in the eye of the law the offender is as innocent as if he had never committed the offence.”
I’m sorry, but this makes absolutely no sense to me. How does Bush issue a pardon when he doesn’t know what his people will be charged with? Your excerpt says, “in the eye of the law the offender is as innocent as if he had never committed the offence.” My question is, what offence? I don’t think you can issue a pardon for “every crime conceivable.”
As dim as some prosecutors can be, one thing they’re good at is coming up with charges. They tried as hard as they could to get Scooter Libby, going so far as to try him for lying to investigators without an underlying crime to lie about. How hard will it be to come up with something to charge Cheney, Rummy, and Condy with?