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If You Want to End This, Mr. President, Start Pardoning

by Rush Limbaugh - Apr 11,2018




RUSH: Audio sound bite. I got two more here. And these are related to the point that I made yesterday that the real thing Trump could do, if he wants to stop this, is start pardoning people. If you really want to stop the investigation, if you want to stop the distraction — because, look, this investigation is bogus to begin with. It’s an investigation into Trump colluding with Russia to steal the election. It didn’t happen. Am I broken record on this or what? The only collusion is with the Hillary camp and the DNC and the Russians.

So this thing is a gigantic distraction. And it has one purpose, and that’s to get rid of Donald Trump. Firing people doing the investigation is not gonna stop the investigation. It’s just gonna transfer it to other people and probably extend it, because whoever replaces whoever gets fired has to start from square one getting up to speed. Firing these people is not gonna accomplish anything. But pardoning the people who have already copped a plea or are on trial soon or who are under investigation, you pardon people, that’s how you shut this down.

The media would go bat crazy, of course, but they’re already bat crazy each and every day. How much more bat crazy can they get? And they probably can. But at least you stop the thing that is aimed at bringing you down. And you take those people and you force them to start taking you out in different ways. You’re not gonna stop the establishment trying to take you out if you’re Trump. But you can stop this particular effort, this investigation in its tracks.

So having said that, here’s Dan Abrams. Dan Abrams used to be on MSNBC. He’s a lawyer. He’s the son of Floyd Abrams, noted First Amendment expert and lawyer. His website is Mediaite. Got a couple of others. He’s on Good Morning America today with the Clinton war room staffer George Stephanopoulos. And they’re getting worried about this because Stephanopoulos said to, “Do you think Trump would try to pardon Michael Cohen?”

ABRAMS: I think that if Michael Cohen’s indicted, it’s not a question of if President Trump pardons him; it’s a question of when. I think that Michael Cohen is gonna feel very safe that if and when he is indicted, he will be pardoned either before the trial or after the trial, but at some point.

RUSH: Now, wait a minute, now. If he’s indicted. How many years is that down the road? Nobody’s in a hurry here. In fact, I would suspect that the investigators, everybody involved in trying to take Trump out is gonna try to tell get multiple weeks out of the raid alone. We may not hear another thing about this raid for a long time because of course they’ll have to sift through all the attorney-client privilege information, and they’ll have to determine which they can see and which they can’t see. And it’s gonna take a lot of time. It’s gonna require a lot of lawyers. And we may not hear any more about this other than leaks for a month or two.

An indictment? Cohen? We not gonna be anywhere near an indictment in this case anywhere this year! Unless the indictment is a week before the election. But Trump can pardon the guy any time he wants. Don’t have to wait for an indictment. I’m pretty sure. Let me double-check that. Here’s Kimberley Strassel making my point that I made yesterday. She’s on Fox News Channel Happening Now today, Jon Scott. This is right before noon today.

STRASSEL: I think the question that has to be asked is would it be helpful rather than counterproductive to go ahead and fire anybody in this train, and I cannot see in any situation where that would be the case. If you fire Jeff Sessions, he still has Rod Rosenstein who he’s been very critical. Firing Rod Rosenstein would cause an enormous uproar on Capitol Hill, likely in the Senate. And firing Bob Mueller, as Senator Rubio said, would simply result in another special counsel, who would finish the work.

RUSH: Right. Finish the work, but have to start at square one getting up to speed. “I don’t know what this case is really all about,” the new special counsel would say. “I only have media reports, I can’t go on that so I gotta go in –” And they just start it all over. Firing people, absolute wrong thing.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Now on pardons, my instincts on this were correct. There are only two limitations in presidential pardons: Crimes have to be federal. And so with Cohen, Southern District of New York, U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, this is a federal court, we’ve got a federal investigation, Trump could pardon Cohen before he’s even indicted or charged. Crime has to be federal. Crime has to have happened already.

You cannot pardon somebody who has not committed a crime. The crime has to have happened. There’s no forgoing license to commit future crimes. There’s no requirement that an arrest or indictment is already happened. Carter, for example, mass pardoned Vietnam draft evaders. Abraham Lincoln pardoned Confederate soldiers. It did not matter that they had not been charged with any crimes. No requirement to wait as long as the conduct has already occurred.

So if the conduct has occurred, even though there hasn’t been a charge or indictment, the president can pardon. And, yes, a president may pardon himself. So if Trump’s serious about stopping this, that’s what he should do. Now, if you go over to Congress, you’ll find people in the House, people in the Senate, “I really don’t think the president should engage in firing anyone. I don’t think the president ought to be pardoning. I think Special Counsel Mueller should be allowed to complete his work. He’s a man of eminent respect and the highest integrity and as such I think it’d be a terrible, terrible mistake to curtail and shorten the work of the special counsel.” And that’s Republicans.

Now, the Democrats are asking for legislation that would somehow protect Mueller from Trump being fired, and Republicans are saying, “No, no, no, no, we’re not gonna do that.” But they are publicly saying that they think Mueller should not be stopped, he shouldn’t be interrupted, he should be allowed to finish his work. The conclusion as to why is obvious to me. Much of Washington would love Trump to be gone, including Republicans and including Never Trumpers. And that’s something that isn’t going to change. 

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