January 7th local time, the New York Times quoted two anonymous sources as saying that US President Trump had told aides that he wanted to pardon himself during the last period of his term.
The two sources familiar with the relevant conversations said that since election day on November 3 last year, Trump has repeatedly expressed his desire to pardon himself to his advisers, asking whether it should be and what legal and political implications will have.
But it’s unclear if Trump has discussed the topic after Wednesday’s congressional conflict. The New York Times said that no president had previously pardoned himself, so the legitimacy of this “prospective self-clemency” has never been tested by the judicial system.
The report said that legal experts disagree on whether the court approved the move, but they all believe that the presidential self-pardonment may create a “new dangerous paradigm” that allows the president to unilaterally declare that they are above the law and save himself from accountability for crimes committed in office.
