Report: Lawyers Convince Trump Not To Pardon Himself, His Kids, Or Anyone Involved In Capitol Rally – By ALLAHPUNDIT (Hot Air) / January 19 2021
I’m pleasantly surprised to report that, although there are certainly bad pardons coming later today or tomorrow morning, there may not be any that are dry-heave bad. No self-pardon. No pardons for the Trump progeny. None for Rudy Giuliani or Steve Bannon or Julian Assange or Edward Snowden. And none for anyone associated with the attack on the Capitol.
The worst we might do is a freebie for disgraced New York state lawmaker Sheldon Silver, a corrupt swamp monster if ever there was one. Not a great outcome, but a hell of a lot better than, say, pardoning Robert Bales.
What convinced Trump to straighten up instead of launching into the W-T-F clemency cavalcade for all manner of crooks, rogues, and war criminals that we expected? Two things. One: He’s suddenly in a lot of political and potentially even criminal jeopardy after the attack on the Capitol and isn’t in a position to antagonize his enemies. Two: Instead of having Rudy Giuliani advising him, he’s got White House counsel Pat Cipollone. According to various reports over the past week, including this new one from CNN, Cipollone and his aides have terrified Trump with warnings of criminal exposure if he does anything to signal that he’s not contrite about what happened at the Capitol. (Cipollone reportedly even helped write the script for the “no more violence” video Trump posted last week.) I think the threat of Trump being prosecuted for incitement is overblown, but other threats are more credible. Anything he does with pardons now that pisses off Senate Republicans raises the chances of him being convicted at his impeachment trial. And anything he does that pisses off Democrats raises the chances of him being prosecuted by liberal state AGs in New York and elsewhere.
