Rudolph Giuliani claimed that Special Counsel Robert Mueller was out to frame the President. Giuliani recently claimed that Trump could possibly pardon himself, something the President had touted as well.
Now the lawyer was claiming that Trump was being framed ad they searched for a way to fight off Mueller’s attacks.
What was ironic bout the scenario was the report that Trump was preparing to pardon a number of individuals that he felt the DOJ treated unjustly.
Trump was known for pardoning persons before, but not such a large number. It was claimed that he was preparing dozens of pardons.
Pardon Plan
One of the persons that Trump pardoned in recent time claimed he never met the President before.
Dinesh D’Souza, a filmmaker and conservative author was charged for violating federal campaign finance laws in 2014.
“I have never met President Trump in my life,” D’Souza said. “I have spoken to him once before on the telephone, but I have never met him. The time I talked to him about my pardon was only the second time I’ve spoken to him, ever.”
Since taking office the President had practiced his executive powers and had pardoned more persons than any other President. Trump was known for his outcry before taking office about pardoning others.
He ridiculed former President Barack Obama on many occasion for using his office to sign Executive orders.
But White House guidelines made it clear that pardoning someone wasn’t a sign of innocence.
“A Presidential pardon is ordinarily a sign of forgiveness. A pardon is not a sign of vindication and does not connote or establish innocence. For that reason, when considering the merits of a pardon petition, pardon officials take into account the petitioner’s acceptance of responsibility, remorse and atonement for the offense,” according to instructions.
Innocent Or Not?
What then could be the purpose of signing off on so many pardons if it didn’t mean innocence?
If the President pardoned himself could that be seen as in the same light as White House guidelines?
If pardoning didn’t mean innocence what would that say about the President pardoning himself?
Nevertheless the claim by Trump had raised many eyebrows. It said that the possibility of Trump pardoning himself was very low.
“No one is above the law,” Paul Ryan said. He spoke to reporters who wanted his view on the claim from the President.
Trump’s lawyer said the President had done nothing wrong so he won’t pardon himself.
He also said Mueller had “13 highly partisan Democrats … (who) are trying very very hard to frame him to get him in trouble when he hasn’t done anything wrong.”