President Donald Trump has prepared a list of individuals to ‘pardon’ in the final days of his administration that includes senior White House officials, family members, prominent rappers -- and possibly himself, Bloomberg reported quoting people familiar with the matter.
Trump is hoping to announce the pardons on Jan 19-- his final day in the office and his ideas are currently being vetted by senior advisers and the White House counsel’s office, according to the report.
The report further says that Trump's legal team is trying to find out whether the president has the authority to pardon himself.
The president’s eldest daughter, Ivanka Trump, her husband, Jared Kushner, who both hold White House positions, are also under consideration, the report added. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani has also discussed the issue of a pardon with the president.
The president wants the preemptive pardons to shield recipients from prosecutions for any federal crimes committed before the pardons were issued.
He’s also considering a traditional pardon for Albert Pirro, who previously worked with the president on real estate deals and was convicted of tax fraud. Pirro is the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, a former district attorney of Westchester County in New York.
Trump is also considering pardoning celebrities including rapper Lil Wayne with whom he posed for a photo during the presidential campaign as well as rapper Kodak Black, who is serving time for falsifying paperwork to obtain a firearm.
Trump’s list is currently being vetted by lawyers who are concerned that pardons could create new allegations of obstruction of justice for members of the administration. The process is being managed in part by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone.
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to Bloomberg request for comment.
What would a self-pardon do?
A self-pardon could shield Trump from prosecution over a myriad of issues his political opponents have suggested could be worthy of prosecution, from his federal income tax filings to hush money payments to an adult film star to his inaugural committee’s spending at venues owned by the Trump family.
The Constitution says that a president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." That sprawling authority is seen as absolute by some, though a Department of Justice legal opinion from 1974 stated that “the president cannot pardon himself," because of what it described as a “fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case."
Trump has already issued pardons to several political allies and friends, including in the weeks since he lost re-election.
