Then Manafort, etc. can’t plead the Fifth with respect to questions that would be evidence against them and Trump.
I can’t imagine Martha Stewart with a firearm unless it were a nice little pearl handled .25 automatic.
What is her crime, that she discovered her stock was going to tank and sold it, then lied about it?
Maybe a .380.
She was on The Apprentice. That is the only reason.
Not that I’ve paid a huge amount of attention, but I’ve never thought of Martha Stewart as especially political either way. I mean, I know that she’s taken a few public stances, such as opposition to fur, that might be characterized as somewhat bleeding heart. But is that really a hot-button political issue these days?
I actually concur that it might be just because she also represents the Apprentice brand, which sort of makes her one of Trump’s people.
Only a pimp from a cheap New Orleans whorehouse would carry a pearl-handled pistol.
I don’t know if she’s a liberal or not, but she says she’s always been a Democrat.
I think The Apprentice connection is the main thing. See similar thread for Blagojevich.
Let’s fix that, shall we?
Well, he has to be charged to be impeached. Probably impeachment is the only way to prosecute a crime committed by a president, I’ll grant you that.
In exchange for a pardon, Martha promised Trump she would help him clean his Cabinet.
And that’s a good thing.
One could make the point, hyperbolically perhaps, that the only two people in the history of the USA who have ever spent a minute in jail for insider trading or dog fighting were Martha Stewart and Michael Vick. The fact that they were singled out (whether for celebrity or any other reason) is a wrong that presidential pardons are designed to redress. But I bet Vick is not on the pardon list.
There is also the point that a president whose chief goal in life is to glamorize his own narcissism, can best achieve that fame on the coat-tails of another celebrity.
Pardons only apply to crimes already committed. So they don’t apply if the criminal acts are still ongoing.
Also then can’t refuse to testify using the 5th Amendment (like RTFirefly said.)
What criminal acts are “still ongoing” in this instance?
Comey was the lead prosecutor. Maybe that has something to do with. Trump wants to stick it to Comey?
Well, maybe Obstruction of Justice. (Which is just what Martha Stewart was convicted of.)
But she was using a coaster, dammit!
One thing to keep in mind about the Mueller investigation is that it’s bigger than just nabbing Trump Administration and Campaign folks. The overarching task is to investigation Russian meddling in the US election process. So Trump could pardon everyone and the investigation would still continue. And Mueller would be royally pissed, which wouldn’t be a good thing for Trump in his post-presidential years.
Oh, my.
Do people pardoned for crimes they already paid a huge fine for get their money back or are they shit out of luck, I’ve always wondered that?
I kinda think Trump legitimately thinks the rules should be different for famous people. And I think a lot of his followers think so too: that’s why they don’t mind the 3 wives and the Playmate and the “grab 'em by the pussy”: it’s different for demigods. And celebrities are demigods in America.