That’s certainly how the rest of the sane part of the the country (and the world) will see it. But that’s not the part Trump is trying to impress / influence.
A reminder: This is General Questions. The motives or likely actions of particular political parties are not the topic, here.
I’m not sure that would matter to him (or, really, anyone). It can mean he admitted to it, but he’s still not going to end up spending the rest of his life in court or jail.
In any case, it seems odd to me that you can be pardoned for something you haven’t been charged with or convicted of yet. If that’s the case, I’m surprised resigning as president so the VP can pardon you of anything illegal you may have done isn’t regularly done on the last day of a presidency. Even if you led a good, legal, scandal free administration, you wouldn’t have to worry about someone finding some technicality they can use to drag you into federal court with.
Furthermore, if you had to be charged and convicted, naturally people would wait until after the inauguration to do that, specifically to avoid giving the current president a chance to step down at the last minute so the VP can pardon them.
Regarding state governors pardoning him for state crimes. ISTM going to bat for former president Trump would be a bad idea. I’d think that not only supporting Trump during is presidency but also pardoning him from crimes against the state is a good way to get the dems riled up enough to vote you out at the next election.
Most of Trump’s legal jeopardy seems to be in New York. Can’t see Andrew Cuomo pardoning him. Possibly DeSantis could block his extradition from Florida back to New York?
Given that we’re 40+ posts into this thread, could you maybe consider moving it to P&E or IMHO instead so we all can discuss it more freely and expansively?
See: Quarter-term one-time president Gerald Ford.
As for DeSantis extraditing him to New York (or not): I’d like to see either New York or the IRS just confiscate all the physical assets he has that they can get their hands on.
I feel like if it gets to the point where he’s facing charges that could result in jail time or a seizure of a significant amount of his assets, he’ll move out of the country. Either to a country that won’t extradite (Russia, Ukraine, Vatican City) or he’ll just spend his remaining years either in Mexico or somewhere in Europe.
Even before that, I’d guess he could make virtually any case against him drag out for years if he wanted to.
He can highball it out of here, but he can’t take Trump Tower with him, or any of his other real estate assets. Confiscate 'em all I sez.
I just assumed, if he has any reason to think they could be seized he’d either (before anything official is filed) sell them for whatever he could get or just walk away from them. Even if he just walked away, I feel like it’s a safe bet that he has enough money in foreign accounts (and foreign businesses) to live comfortably for the rest of his life.
And, yeah, I’m sure all his properties are mortgaged, have liens or are otherwise leveraged, but even with that, I could see someone being willing to buy them for a low enough price.
Some very quickly (and maybe incorrectly) googling suggests that Trump Tower in NY is assessed at about $500m. Even if the mortgage (and all it’s other baggage) was to be assumed by the new owner, I’d bet that putting it on the market for $100m OBO, could make a sale happen very quickly. Sure, he’d be taking a loss on it, but if he’s just looking for some cash to get out of the country with, it doesn’t seem like a terrible idea.
As I’m typing this, it seems like a wise idea by the IRS would be to wrap up this ‘audit’ before January 20th and place a lien on his properties, that way he couldn’t sell it for any price.
How much monthly rent does he get from his tenants in all his rental/condo properties? What if, say, the IRS seizes a tower and directs all tenants to pay their rent to a treasury account they set up for the purpose? (Of course, the IRS doesn’t want to be in the landlord business, but they could contract with a property management company to deal with rent, maintenance, and such.)
I’m pretty sure the Russian oligarchs who co-signed his loans with Deutsche Bank will hold first position on those liens. Although the Russians have other ways of collecting, and they do seem to have few scruples about how far they are willing to go to do that.
Putin has signaled rather overtly several times in the past few weeks that he’s done with Trump. He likely reads the polls better than Trump does. And I doubt Trump would rest easy there in a Black Sea dacha. Even one with a golden toilet.
I don’t think that would put them in the landlord business. The owner/property manager would still be the take care of all that, the IRS would just be collecting the rent.
One of my vendors owed (owes) quite a bit in back taxes. The state dept of revenue sent a letter to me directing me to send all payments meant for him, to them instead. It’s not like I’d call the state if I had an issue with his products, I was just told to send my payments to them instead. It’s not all that different from garnishing an employee’s wages.
Side note: I didn’t actually owe him any money and wasn’t actively buying from him at the time, so the letter I received was the extent of my interaction with the state for that matter.
Do states ever block extradition to another state?
Yes. In fact there is a fairly famous case about it.
Agree that there isn’t a material GQ here. Here’s the OP less his linked content:
To the degree there is a GQ here, the answers are:
- Yes, pardons can be given in advance of any charges.
- Yes, pardons can cover any/every sort of crime from jaywalking to treason over any time period, from the pardonee’s birth to now. And possibly even into the future for ongoing crimes begun before now.
- Or at least those are the precedents that have been set by prior presidential pardons. Could the scope be expanded further by future even more expansive pardons? Potentially yes, given a favorable-enough court.
All the rest is speculation about future events and or political debate / arguing.
By all means please move it. My post has been answered.
Moved from GQ to Politics and Elections.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator