Tag: presidential pardon

‘Grave Mistake’: Trump-Supporting Manafort Juror Warns the President Against Pardoning His Ex-Campaign Chair

The following article by Matthew Chapman was posted on the AtlerNet.org website August 24, 2018:

Paula Duncan is a hardcore Trump supporter. But she found Manafort guilty and doesn’t want the president to intervene.

Paula Duncan is a steadfast supporter of President Donald Trump. She considers Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation to be a “witch hunt.” When she was selected as a juror in the case of Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, which stemmed from Mueller’s investigation, she even brought her “Make America Great Again” hat to the federal courthouse for the Eastern District of Virginia and kept it in her car during the proceedings.

But even she could see, once the trial got going and Mueller’s prosecutors presented their evidence, that Manafort was guilty of money laundering and tax fraud. She voted to convict him on all 18 counts. And now, she has a message for the president she loves: don’t interefere.

“I feel it would be grave mistake for President Trump to pardon Paul Manafort,” Duncan told CNN’s Anderson Cooper in an interview that will air on Friday night. “Justice was done, the evidence was there and that’s where it should stop.”

View the complete article here.

Pardon carries risks for both Trump and Manafort

The following article by Lydia Wheeler was posted on the Hill website August 23, 2018:

It’s a Trump pardon or bust for Paul Manafort.

Winning a presidential pardon may be the only hope of escaping prison for President Trump’s former campaign chairman now that he’s been convicted on eight counts of tax and bank fraud stemming from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Manafort, 69, is facing a sentence that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. And while no sentencing date has been set yet, he could know his prison term before a federal jury in Washington, D.C., considers evidence against him on separate charges in a second criminal trial that starts Sept. 17.

Here’s what you need to know about the presidential power to pardon

The following article by Andrew Rudalevige was posted on the Washington Post website July 24, 2017:

Early Saturday morning, President Trump declared via tweet that “all agree the U.S. President has the complete power to pardon.” It will come as little shock that many do not agree on this point, especially when it comes to the question of whether the president can pardon himself. In fact, a new wing of the Internet has been opened to debatethis point.

The pardon power is exceptionally broad

It is true that the pardon power is, indeed, one of the strongest unilateral authorities of the presidency. Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution says that the president “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Continue reading “Here’s what you need to know about the presidential power to pardon”