Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara on Sunday warned Donald Trump that he would effectively ensure impeachment if he tried to pardon himself.
During an interview on CNN's State of the Union program, host Dana Bash noted that Trump's attorneys had asserted in a letter to special counsel Robert Mueller that the president has the power to pardon himself. On Sunday, Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani agreed that the president "probably" has self-pardoning power.
"I think it would be outrageous," Bharara told Bash. "I think if the president decided he was going to pardon himself, I think that's almost self-executing impeachment. Whether or not there's a minor legal argument that some law professor somewhere in a legal journal can make, that's not what the framers could have intended."
"The second thing is, when Rudy Giuliani says... the president is not contemplating [pardoning himself]," the former U.S. Attorney continued, "I have no faith in that whatsoever."
