One thing that occurred to me is that he could have signed pardons for himself and his kids and kept them secret, so he can just pull them out of his pocket when he needs one. Would that be valid?
I really can't see how that would work.
I mean, one of the main arguments against Trump pardoning himself or his children was that the pardons would have to specify the general area and timescale of the offences they pardoning, and can't cover criminal behaviour after the pardon date, obviously, so that would tell prosecutors where to start looking for things they can prosecute, and would also mean that Trump's entire record would be scrutinised for prosecution, including his time in the White House, because a self-pardon would be the same as saying "please take my history apart and throw the book at me" to the Justice Department, because of course they'd challenge its validity.
Is the Supreme Court going to let a self-pardon stand? How well did stacking it play out for him when he tried to get them to overturn the election?
That's not a risk he's going to take, I think. Not if someone has explained it to him, and someone must have done -- if even someone like me can see some obvious flaws in that strategy, others can see them far more readily and far earlier than have I.
It's a gamble between leaving without a pardon, and hoping that they don't ever prosecute him, or leaving with a pardon and the certainty that they'll come after him with absolute ferocity, and an outraged public behind them, and that at then end of it all, after all his dirty washing has been displayed in public, the mere -- and to my mind, unlikely -- possibility that that the Supremes will let him walk.
A self-pardon is a Wile E Coyote sort of device -- seems just the legit Super Genius thing the Acme Novelty Company would make, but then it blows up in his face if he ever tries to use it.
A secret pardon would do him no good. It would just make matters worse, since by the time he needed to reveal it, it would be too late.
edition.cnn.com
