The Untested Self-Pardon
Delay tactics: Former President Donald Trump is currently dealing with the hush-money/falsifying business records case before him, in which he may be convicted and serve some time in prison. It is also not impossible that he will serve some amount of time in jail beforehand if he violates the judge’s gag order again.
But the other three criminal cases before him look increasingly like they will be delayed until after the presidential election in November, in part due to the fact that Trump’s legal team has been successfully pushing them off until later.
“If Trump wins, he could appoint Justice Department officials to make the two federal cases against him go away,” notes Axios, referring to the cases involving conspiracy to overturn election results and mishandling of classified documents. There would still be the Georgia case—concerning the overturning of election results—to contend with, but that case has been roiled by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ conflict of interest scandal. And, in terms of the first two federal cases, legal experts are torn on whether Trump would be able to pardon himself.
“The answer is open in part because no president except Trump has ever been charged with a crime,” reports Axios. “But it’s also the result of a failure on Congress’s part to prohibit the potential practice through a constitutional amendment, though some members of Congress have tried to do so.”
Hunter’s guns: “A federal judge in Delaware denied Hunter Biden’s bid to throw out his felony gun charges on Thursday, rejecting arguments from the president’s son that the federal prohibition on owning guns while using illegal drugs is unconstitutional under the Second Amendment,” reports Politico.
Biden the younger was charged in 2023 with buying a gun while using illegal drugs—he notoriously had a crack cocaine problem at the time of the purchase, in 2018—as well as lying about the drug use on a government form while buying the weapon.
“Separately, a federal appeals court panel ruled against Biden earlier Thursday in another bid to have the charges against him tossed,” reports Politico. “The two decisions appear to clear the way for his case to head to trial on June 3, though his defense team can still pursue further appeals.”
“Hunter Biden’s multiplying gun charges threaten the right to arms and the right to trial,” wrote Reason‘s Jacob Sullum last year. “Survey data suggest that millions of gun owners are guilty of violating 18 USC 922(g)(3) because they consume arbitrarily proscribed intoxicants (mainly marijuana). Yet fewer than 150 Americans are prosecuted for that crime each year. Even when gun buyers (including people who are disqualified for other reasons, such as felony records) are caught lying on Form 4473, they are rarely prosecuted.” It’s almost like an example is being made of Hunter Biden, whose legal argument is in stark opposition to the Biden administration’s position on the matter.
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