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Trump's ally Roger Stone was found guilty of lying to Congress and witness tampering.

He is currently awaiting sentencing or a Presidential pardon.

You would imagine Trump standing with his point man to the Russian hackers and Wikileaks, and offering a pardon - especially before Stone spills the beans for leniency.

Now that Trump is pardoning war criminals, I think Roger’s in good shape.

Res Ipsa wrote:Now that Trump is pardoning war criminals, I think Roger’s in good shape.

check yourself there Pelosi.

What is the likelihood that Trump will not pardon both Stone and Manafort? And how would it affect his approval ratings and reelection prospects if he did pardon them?

Gunnar wrote:What is the likelihood that Trump will not pardon both Stone and Manafort? And how would it affect his approval ratings and reelection prospects if he did pardon them?

I'm curious how that will be covered. One of the things that's happened in the coverage of Trump is a laser-focus on breaking the law as the bar for judging whether the President did anything wrong, much less impeachable. The President's pardon power is essentially limitless in federal cases, and therefore any such pardon is legal, but corrupt pardons are abuses of office that fall within the zone of impeachable conduct. Impeachment is the Constitutionally intended check on that kind of abuse of power. Donald Trump has the legal authority to pardon people who murder his critics in Washington D.C., but if he did that, one would hope that'd be a bridge too far. Though, at this point, I wonder.

Pardoning Stone and/or Manafort would be scandalous, a high crime if there ever was one, but I'm not sure the extent to which it gets covered that way.

Yes, subgenius, Mark Rich sucked. While the use of the pardon power for petty corruption isn't the same as what's being discussed here, it was quite bad and you can save he whataboutism for another day.

EAllusion wrote:

Gunnar wrote:What is the likelihood that Trump will not pardon both Stone and Manafort? And how would it affect his approval ratings and reelection prospects if he did pardon them?

I'm curious how that will be covered. One of the things that's happened in the coverage of Trump is a laser-focus on breaking the law as the bar for judging whether the President did anything wrong, much less impeachable. The President's pardon power is essentially limitless in federal cases, and therefore any such pardon is legal, but corrupt pardons are abuses of office that fall within the zone of impeachable conduct. Impeachment is the Constitutionally intended check on that kind of abuse of power. Donald Trump has the legal authority to pardon people who murder his critics in Washington D.C., but if he did that, one would hope that'd be a bridge too far. Though, at this point, I wonder.

Pardoning Stone and/or Manafort would be scandalous, a high crime if there ever was one, but I'm not sure the extent to which it gets covered that way.

What scares me is that I doubt that Trump has either the wit or the integrity to acknowledge or care that ". . .corrupt pardons are abuses of office that fall within the zone of impeachable conduct." I don't think that Trump regards anything as a "bridge too far," as long as he perceives it as a net benefit to him.

To Trump, and I suspect to most of the Republican Congresscritters, "corrupt pardon" is an oxymoron. Unless the president is a democrat.