Former President Donald Trump could theoretically pardon himself after he was indicted in a federal investigation connected to whether he mishandled classified records, according to George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley.
Speaking to Fox News, Turley said that for the 2024 election, “Trump could run on pardoning himself. You know, for people that feel that this is biased, that this is part of a pattern.”
“He could turn this on his opponents and actually run on his right to pardon himself,” Turley, also a Fox contributor, said on Thursday night during an interview with host Jesse Watters. “So, if he’s elected, even if he’s convicted, he could pardon himself, or he could do so before a trial occurs.”
Federal prosecutors, in an indictment unsealed on Friday, said that Trump is facing 37 felony charges related to the alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump disclosed the existence of the indictment in a Truth Social post Thursday night as well as in a video he recorded.
The document marks the Justice Department’s first official confirmation of a criminal case against Trump arising from the retention of hundreds of documents at his Florida home, Mar-a-Lago. The indictment accuses Trump of having improperly removed scores of boxes from the White House to take them to Mar-a-Lago, many of them containing classified information.
The indictment also alleged that, for a two-month period, some of Trump’s boxes were stored in one of Mar-a-Lago’s gilded ballrooms. A picture included in the indictment shows boxes stacked in rows on the ballroom’s stage.
The indictment also shows photographs of boxes that spilled over in the storage room, including a document marked “SECRET/REL TO USA, FVEY,” which means information releasable only to members of the intelligence alliance of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. In the photo, the classified document is redacted.
On Truth Social, Trump has maintained his innocence and said the indictment is part of a longstanding witch hunt targeting him and is meant to interfere in the 2024 election. Previously, Trump said that while he was president, he had the authority to declassify materials.
“Strange! Everything about the boxes was so neat, orderly, and clean. Did the FBI tip over the one box the way they “staged” the papers on the floor during the raid of Mar-a-Lago, only to apologize after getting caught?” he wrote on the social media platform.
In an earlier post, Trump said he would be represented in the case by white-collar defense lawyer Todd Blanche, who is representing him in a separate criminal case in Manhattan. Trump made that announcement after his lawyers, John Rowley and Jim Trusty, departed his legal team.
U.S. Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the prosecution, said in a brief statement on Friday: “Our laws that protect national defense information are critical to the safety and security of the United States, and they must be enforced.”
“We have one set of laws in this country, and they apply to everybody,” he added, saying that as with any defendant, those accused were presumed innocent until proven guilty, and he pledged to seek a speedy trial before a jury of citizens in Florida.
Materials came from the Pentagon, the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and other intelligence agencies, the indictment said.
In a Friday interview, Turley speculated that prosecuting Trump is “going to take a lot of work,” and it “seems unlikely that they can get this to trial before the election” due to the “broad array of witnesses” involved in the case.
“That could make the election a type of referendum on how people feel about this case,” Turley, who served as an impeachment expert witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial, said. “You may have a second jury composed of tens of millions of Americans essentially voting on this. Because if he is elected, he could pardon himself.”
Trump is the early front-runner in the Republican presidential primary for the right to challenge Biden, who is seeking reelection. At least one of Trump’s rivals, meanwhile, doesn’t think the case should prompt the former president to bow out of the primary race.
“I think any consideration of that is premature,” former Vice President Mike Pence told reporters in New Hampshire. “Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in America. I think the former president has a right to make his defense.”
The U.S. Constitution does not bar people who were charged or convicted of a crime from running for president. It only stipulates that individuals who were not born in the United States, have not lived in the country for at least 14 years, and are younger than 35 cannot run.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
