Donald Trump should pardon himself and family, otherwise 'witch hunt' by Joe Biden will go on: Fox's Sean Hannity
Fox News host Sean Hannity feels outgoing President Donald Trump should pardon himself and his family before vacating the office in January. He came up with his suggestion on his radio show on the channel on Monday, November 30, while talking on how the incumbent announced a full pardon for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn. He also called the call for probe against the president as “witch hunt” that would go on for eternity if he doesn’t pardon himself and his family.
Hannity, who was speaking to former Trump attorney, Sidney Powell, from whom the president’s legal team distanced itself recently after she came up with a lot of incorrect statements about the voting process, suggested that the Republican commander-in-chief needed to protect himself from the incoming administration led by Joe Biden. The former vice-president, who is set to take oath as the next president in January, however, said recently that his administration will not prosecute the outgoing president.
Hannity said Biden was being publicly encouraged to launch a probe against Trump and prosecute him for any criminal misconduct during his presidency. However, Biden’s refusal to prosecute his predecessor gave rise to the speculation whether Trump made a "Nixon deal".
'They want witch hunt to go on in perpetuity'
“The president out the door needs to pardon his whole family and himself, because they want this witch hunt to go on in perpetuity. They're so full of rage and insanity against the president,” Hannity said. “I mean, I assume that the power of the pardon is absolute, and that he should be able to pardon anybody that he wants to?”
Powell, a firebrand conservative attorney, supported him to say: “It is absolute it's in the Constitution.”
Powell, however, went on to say that such a presidential pardon should not be necessary because “the president is going to get another four years in office to finish the job he started because the election fraud we're uncovering is massive”. Trump and his loyalists have been challenging the outcome of the November 3 election saying it has been stolen and the president has even warned that Biden could enter the White House only after he could prove that he did not amass illegal votes to win the contest. However, the Trump camp’s ongoing efforts in seeking legal remedy have produced little results since it has not been able to produce evidence, leaving his legal teams divided.
But can Trump pardon himself?
According to a report in the Daily Mail, there is no definite answer to the query since it is something unprecedented. It cited Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University, who said he could always try to pardon himself. “The Constitution does not provide a clear answer on this,” he said. Other legal experts felt self-pardon would not be something constitutional since it violates the basic principle that nobody should judge his or her own case. Even Kalt backed the argument.
The entire debate on whether Trump could pardon himself and his family came up after the president pardoned Flynn. The incumbent has also granted pardon to supporters earlier, most notably when he commuted the criminal sentence of Roger Stone, who was given a sentence after getting convicted of lying under oath to the lawmakers. Trump has reportedly also asked his aides whether he has the right to self-pardon and grant clemency to his own family members. He even asked if he could issue clemency pre-emptively for things people could be charged with. In 2018, the Republican giant said he had the “absolute right” to grant himself a pardon — a claim many constitutional law scholars challenged.