# Couls a US Pres. Traficant pardon himself?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 20, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481 "2003-08-20T17:06:37Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![gleeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f14d63/32.png) [@gleeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gleeb)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481/1 "2003-08-20T17:06:37Z")

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News reports like this one: [http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/24/traficant.president.ap/](http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/07/24/traficant.president.ap/)  
say that there is a group trying to draft imprisoned former US Representative James Traficant as a candidate for the Presidency.

OK, assuming Magic Elves carried off all the other candidates (or whatever it would take) and Traficant were elected, could he pardon himself?

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**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481/2 "2003-08-20T18:21:42Z")

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Obviously the courts have never addressed it, but yes, he probably could. There was speculation that Clinton would pardon himself in the event that federal criminal charges were brought against him. A President’s constitutional power to issue reprieves and pardons for everything except impeachment is pretty much absolute; there doesn’t appear to be any legal reason why it would apply to everyone except the President.

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**Author:** ![zev\_steinhardt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/97f17d/32.png) [@zev\_steinhardt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zev_steinhardt)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481/3 "2003-08-20T18:30:49Z")

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I actuall asked this [very question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=201708) a while back.

Zev Steinhardt

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**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\
**Post date:** [August 20, 2003, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/couls-a-us-pres-traficant-pardon-himself/196481/4 "2003-08-20T19:22:11Z")

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Since this topic has been discussed so recently, I’ll close this thread and direct further comment to the earlier one, linked to above.

bibliophage  
moderator GQ