Former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that if President Trump were to pardon himself, that would result in almost certain “self-executing impeachment.”
[Update: Trump says he has the ‘absolute right’ to pardon himself]
During an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Bharara was asked to react to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s lawyer, saying that his client “probably” has the power to pardon himself even though Trump has no intention of pursuing that course of action.
Bharara, who was fired by Trump last year, said a pardon would be “outrageous.”
“I think if the president decided that he was going to pardon himself I think it is almost self-executing impeachment,” he said, adding that what Giuliani said about Trump have no intention of pardoning himself should be heeded with some hesitation because he “keeps coming up with things that end up being false.”
Giuliani’s talk of a presidential pardon came while discussing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of whether Trump may have tried to obstruct justice in the federal Russia inquiry.
