A Trump Self-Pardon Could Make Criminal Charges More Likely

"To start with, Trump has been shielded from federal criminal prosecution while in office not by the Constitution or binding Supreme Court precedent but by internal Justice Department policy. A self-pardon would challenge the constitutionality of another such policy encapsulated in a 1974 memo citing the “fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case” and concluding that “the president cannot pardon himself.”

The Justice Department policy dates from the Watergate scandal, in which President Richard Nixon resigned and was pardoned by his former vice president, Gerald Ford. If Trump were to follow that path and accept a pardon from a President Mike Pence, the act would be on solid legal ground. But a self-pardon has no historical precedent."

"The Constitution says that a president “shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.” Some experts have said they believe this means the power is absolute. Former George W. Bush Justice Department official John Yoo wrote in an October 2017 New York Times op-ed that the president “can clearly pardon anyone -- even himself.”

But other experts say that would go against the framer’s intent. “If the president can pardon himself, there’s no recourse for federal crimes that he has committed,” said Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Marymount University, “and that’s not really how our system is set up.”"