Trump said he would consider pre-emptive pardons to protect Elon Musk and other close aides should Democrats take control of Congress
Donald Trump said he would be willing to protect Elon Musk and his staff if Democrats take control of Congress after the midterm elections this week.
In an interview for the “Pod Force One” podcast published Monday, Trump said he would move to “protect” the billionaire SpaceX and Tesla CEO if Congressional investigators targeted him.
Trump also indicated that he was weighing pre-emptive pardons for his close aides and others around him should the Democrats pursue investigations, according to Axios. It is a notion that the president has floated before to keep his team from facing prosecution for actions during the first two years of his term.
It sounds so very Trump to pardon preemptively, yet if a pardon is given, it’ll be fair grounds for the pardoned to speak about their misdeeds without fear of prosecution, thus letting you spill the beans on everyone else. That’s likely why pardons aren’t given until people are already well beyond in the shitter.
It goes a step further than that, once you have a pardon, there are no fifth amendment protections for questions about it anymore. Because with the pardon, you don’t need protection.