Trump says he has ‘absolute right’ to pardon himself of federal crimes

Related Link Trump’s pardon-palooza: Presidents and the constitutional power to pardon

Legal scholars differ on the issue of whether a president can pardon himself.

The question of whether a president can self-pardon has long been a “parlor game” among scholars, said Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University Law School.

There’s no precedent for it and thus no case law. Turley said he believes a president can pardon himself — but added that would not protect a president from impeachment.

“A president cannot pardon out of an impeachment,” Turley said. Congress, he said, “can use his pardon as an abuse of his office.”

Ethan Leib, a professor at Fordham Law School, said he believes a president can’t self-pardon because that violates the oath of office — in which the president swears to “faithfully execute” his duties — and the stipulation in Article II of the Constitution that the president “shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”

“The Constitution is clearly prohibiting the president from engaging in self-dealing,” Leib said.