Glenn
Kirschner on Pardoning Donald Trump: ‘If You Want More Criminality, Decline to
Hold the Criminals Accountable’
BY BRANDON GAGE December 5, 2020
In the weeks since
President Donald Trump’s defeat in the 2020 election, legal experts have ramped
up discussions about whether Trump should be prosecuted for crimes he committed
prior to and during his time in office.
While a long-standing
Justice Department policy prevents a sitting president from being indicted,
such protection ends when the commander in chief’s term expires and he or she
returns to private life.
Some have argued that
President-Elect Joe Biden should pardon Trump so that the country can move on
from the Trump nightmare, like when Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon for his
role in Watergate.
Then there are those,
including Trump, who argue that the president can pardon himself, which is a
matter of ongoing debate.
If Trump were to attempt
to issue a self-pardon – something no previous president has ever done – he
would have to admit his own guilt. Further, Trump would not be shielded from
prosecution at the state level, because presidential pardons only apply to
federal crimes.
But for others, the
scope of Trump’s corruption and transparent criminality requires that he be
held accountable, otherwise, future presidents would be handed carte blanche to
flout the law as they please.
On Friday’s edition
of The Dean Obeidallah Show on SiriusXM, MSNBC and
NBC legal analyst Glenn Kirschner explained why he believes Trump must face
consequences.
Host Dean Obeidallah
asked Kirschner, a former federal prosecutor: “If Donald Trump is not
prosecuted what message does that send?”
Kirschner said that if
Trump is placed above the law, it would effectively turn him – and his
successors – into kings.
“We’re slouching to the
end of our Republic. If we say we couldn’t prosecute when he was in office
because the [DOJ’s] Office of Legal Counsel has this horrific opinion that you
can’t prosecute a sitting criminal President, and we are not going to prosecute
him for all those crimes once he leaves office, really?! Then a President is
King while in office, and after he leaves office, and what you are doing is you
are encouraging every single politician to be corrupt because they are going to
get away with it.”
Kirschner added that “If
you want more criminality, decline to hold the criminals accountable. If you
say. ‘We aren’t going after bank robbers,’ then everyone is going to be out
there robbing banks.”
Watch and listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3YaQmbOdk&feature=emb_logo
Forty-six days until the
inauguration.
