Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that it was “highly unlikely” he would issue a pardon himself if elected to the White House in 2024, but he refused to rule it out entirely.
“I think it is very unlikely. What, what’s wrong with me? I did nothing wrong,” Trump, 77, told Kristen Welker, host of NBC’s “Meet the Press,” when asked about the potential pardon. “You mean because I challenged the election, they want to put me in jail?”
Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, recalled being offered the chance to pardon himself before leaving office in 2021, but ultimately decided against it.
“I can forgive myself. Do you know what? I was given the choice to forgive myself. I can forgive myself when I leave,” revealed the former president.
Trump refuses to completely rule out the possibility of issuing a pardon himself if elected president in 2024. NBC News
“People say, ‘Do you want to forgive yourself?’ I’ve had some lawyers say, ‘You can do it if you want.’ I’ve had a few people say, ‘It’s going to look bad if you do it’ – because I think it’s going to look terrible,” he added.
“Let me just say, I said, ‘The last thing I’m going to do is grant myself a pardon,'” Trump recalled, arguing that he did “a great job as president.”
Trump faces a total of 91 charges in four criminal cases – and up to 712 years and six months in prison if convicted of all.
He has been indicted on federal charges related to his handling of classified documents and his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Trump revealed that he considered pardoning himself in 2021 but decided against it.NBC News
At the state level, he has been indicted in New York, related to alleged secret payments made to porn star Stormy Daniels, and in Georgia, stemming from his alleged involvement in a conspiracy to interfere in the 2020 state election.
The president’s pardon power is broad in nature, but only in federal cases. That authority does not cover state and local convictions, so it appears Trump does not have the power to overturn possible convictions in his first and last criminal indictments of the year, in Manhattan and Fulton County, Ga.
“I could do a pardon that would save me all these lawyers and all this — these false accusations, these Biden allegations,” Trump said.
Trump, however, refused to completely rule out granting himself a pardon if elected president again, when pressed by Welker.
The former president’s full interview with the network will air on Sunday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
