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Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Amid relentless scrutiny over possible ties between his presidential campaign and Russia, an extraordinary suggestion has emerged - that Donald Trump could pardon himself or his family.
Source: BBC News
US President Donald Trump has insisted he has the "complete power" to pardon people, amid reports he is considering presidential pardons for family members, aides and even himself.
A Democratic Party spokesman has called the reports "extremely disturbing".
The US authorities are probing possible collusion between the Trump team and Russia. Intelligence agencies think Russia tried to help Mr Trump to power.
Russia denies this, and the president says there was no collusion.
The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Mr Trump and his team were looking at ways to pardon people close to him.
Source: BBC News
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Non Sequor on Monday July 24 2017, @05:15PM (4 children)
Let's flip it a different way. Let's say that Trump and company are innocent, but the Russian government has staged a variety of things to create leads. They might have misdirected a couple of minor assets (Russian lawyer and Goldstone) with indirect Russia ties to set up a meeting that looks unusual. They may have directed Kislyak to report over monitored channels to say that Sessions discussed the campaign. Passing information about the Wikileaks dump to Stone would be another way to create an impression of collusion. They may have planted sources to generate an unverifiable dossier. Putin may have deliberately sought a conversation with Trump off the record wholly to create more gossip.
All of these actions have low risks and a low cost to benefit ratio. Actually controlling the American president would be a huge benefit to Russia, but the risks are massive because getting caught will precipitate an international response. All of the actions above have predictable outcomes because the parties involved are relatively psychologically predictable and the pattern of media and partisan response is also predictable. Organizationally, the presidency is crippled and without a secure majority in congress, sowing distrust cripples legislative progress. Any chance of Trump playing to his more centrist economic impulses are crippled if democrats are unwilling to cut deals. Russia may have incapacitated the US at relatively low cost.
This type of storyline is much more interesting than the narratives that either party is pushing.
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 24 2017, @06:56PM (3 children)
Interesting idea, but all that puts the Trump administration into a position where they would antagonize Russian interests to demonstrate that they weren't working together.
This ignores how the Democrats have bent over for the Republicans even when they had a super majority. The Democrats seem to lack a spine or pretend to be powerless against the Republicans.
(Score: 2) by Non Sequor on Monday July 24 2017, @08:25PM
Write your congressman. Tell him he sucks.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 26 2017, @12:35AM
Yet another predictable response which can be gamed. For example, what happens if the attempt to antagonize Russia also antagonizes the EU and India?
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 26 2017, @03:00AM
I think it's educational what sort of issues the two parties have been willing to compromise on. Neither seems interested in weakening the intelligence agencies, for example.