-In 2018, President Trump said this.
-And, yes, I do have an absolute right to pardon myself.
-This was in response to Robert Mueller's investigation.
You know, the one about Russia?
Now, as Trump prepares to leave office,
one of his last moves might be to issue pardons to his allies,
family members, or himself.
So, what exactly is a presidential pardon?
-I hereby grant you a full pardon.
-The pardon comes from the US Constitution,
where it lists the powers of the executive branch.
-Essentially, presidents have broad authority
to pardon any number of crimes.
-This is Aaron Blake, senior political reporter.
-But there is one thing that constrains that power,
and that's that a president can only pardon federal crimes.
When it comes to things that either state governments
investigate or local officials investigate,
those are not under the purview of the president's pardon power.
-The power to pardon is absolute,
and it's as old as our nation.
-The first president was the first one to use the pardon.
-This is Gillian Brockell.
She writes for the history blog at The Post.
-So, the Whiskey Rebellion started in 1791
with a tax on whiskey.
-Many people protested.
More than 150 people were arrested for treason,
and two were convicted.
-Now, later, perhaps because George Washington
was embarrassed over the way he reacted,
he pardoned the two that were convicted,
and then preemptively pardoned the others.
-Let's fast-forward to the 20th century,
to the most controversial pardon in American history.
-I feel that Richard Nixon and his loved ones
have suffered enough.
-After Richard Nixon resigned, Gerald Ford, his vice president,
pardoned him for any legal liabilities he might have,
stemming from the Watergate affair.
-In other words, a preemptive pardon.
-We're giving Alice a full pardon.
I just told her.
-Pardons are supposed to acknowledge
that our judicial system is not perfect.
President Trump has a few of these under his belt.
[applause]
Pardons have also been used to gain political allies.
-President Trump's pardons take things to another level,
compared to any recent American president.
Not only has he pardoned political allies and advisers,
we're talking about people like Conrad Black, Dinesh D'Souza.
And the president seemed to view these cases
as ways to appeal
to the more extreme elements of the Republican Party,
and try and build his base when it comes to reelection.
-Biden will never be our president.
-He might as well go back to the basement.
-Usually, a president will save the controversial pardons
for the lame-duck portion of their term,
because at that point, they don't need approval from voters.
President Bill Clinton saved his controversial pardons
for his last hours in office.
Some even call it Pardongate.
-One of them was Patty Hearst.
Another was his half-brother Roger Clinton.
-So now many are speculating on who else Trump will pardon
before he leaves office.
-And I'm like, "The president, out the door,
needs to pardon his whole family and himself,
'cause they want this witch hunt to go on in perpetuity.
I assume that the power of the pardon is absolute
and that he should be able to pardon anybody that he wants to.
-Um, yes and no, Sean.
The president can pardon family.
But himself?
-So, basically, there are two arguments
against a president pardoning themselves.
One is that it would be an inherently corrupt act.
Another disagreement has to do with a president
can technically grant,
which is the word used in the Constitution,
themselves a pardon.
Some people believe that "grant" is generally something
that you do for somebody else;
you can't grant yourself something.
And we haven't seen that actually decided
in a court of law.
-Everyone agrees that Trump
has dramatically changed the presidency.
In four years, he has broken countless norms.
Will his final precedent-breaking
act be to change pardons
as we know them and as our founders shaped them?
[crowd cheers] -It's a beautiful sight.