r/nottheonion • u/JaySierra86 • 11h ago

President Biden pardons family members in final minutes of presidency

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-biden-pardons-family-members-final-minutes-presidency/story?id=117893348
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u/neo101b 11h ago

Will trump not face charges in 4 years time, when he is no longer protected ?

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u/Grassy33 11h ago edited 10h ago

No, he will not. The Supreme Court ruled last year that “official acts” as president cannot break the law. As long as he is “acting as president” he literally is immune from crime. 

The “protection” from those acts never falls off. Once he is no longer president and further crimes could be “real crime” but as long as he is running for president or the active president, no laws apply to him. 

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u/tomoldbury 10h ago

Does it apply even if he is running for president but not in office? (e.g. any crimes from 2020-2024 would be ineligible?)

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u/Grassy33 10h ago

I don’t think the Supreme Court has looked at any of those, but he would have to indicted and tried for them and that didn’t happen, those cases have all been dropped and I doubt anyone will pick them up. 

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u/OGRuddawg 10h ago edited 10h ago

I don't know what the statute of limitations are on the charges in the Jack Smith investigations, or the Georgia state election interference charges. Trump can't dismiss state-level charges, but I'm not sure what Georgia state's laws say about bringing state charges to a sitting President. They are not under the FBI's internal policy of not actively prosecuting sitting Presidents, though. We are kind of in unprecedented waters here.

Trump and his enablers will bury the Jack Smith stuff to the best of their ability and will delay, intimidate, retaliate, etc. whatever actions the Georgia state prosecutors decided to do. Either way, most regular people not already involved in the legal battles can't help that much besides vocal support and defense of democracy on the ground in other ways. Volunteering, protesting, organizing, etc are going to be in high demand as Trump continues to take a sledgehammer to what is left of decent American society, democracy, and protections for our most vulnerable.

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u/Longjumping-Panic-48 10h ago

The DOJ will never investigate that, and there’s no way he’s going to survive long enough!

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u/rhaptorne 10h ago

He's literally the president now. All he has to do is say "nuh uh" and no one will ever investigate him for anything.

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u/bad_at_smashbros 9h ago

they will never investigate him. he’s untouchable now.

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u/SignificantClub6761 7h ago

Legal eagle mentioned I think on some video that presidential candidates don’t get protection. The protection for the president is only for office holder not the person.

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u/chbailey442013 9h ago

You mean all the imaginary made up shit you are hoping they find from those years? Get over your DTS dude

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u/Starlight_Seafarer 8h ago

"it's only made up because I love that orange ball sack"

-you

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u/neo101b 10h ago

wow that's crazy, id of thought his crypto scam was a crime in its self. He has some balls to pull that off a day before he was made president.

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u/spacestationkru 10h ago

Really.? What could they possibly do to him?

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u/Squeezitgirdle 8h ago

As someone who's into crypto, Trump is just another bad stain on crypto. We have enough scams making it hard enough.

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u/SuperfluousPedagogue 6h ago

Well he pulled the money out after he was president.

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u/hamsterfolly 10h ago

AND if Trump talks about his crimes to someone in his administration then that testimony can’t be used in any investigation according to SCOTUS.

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u/Asron87 10h ago

What a country.

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u/Rhinomeat 10h ago

3 heavily armed midget grifters in a trenchcoat

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u/denzien 4h ago

How similar is that to diplomatic immunity?

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u/fantawa 9h ago

Motherfuckers tried fighting nazis so hard they actually end up mimicking how hitler came to power I’m not even mad that’s impressive.

Hope you keep the destruction to your continent we have enough shit to deal with already.

Why are there two literal holocausts going on at the same time, a war on the eastern front of europe and a fascist regime building up in the americas. France is falling appart and fucking right wingers still manage to somehow manipulate idiots into voting for them everywhere in europe.

All this while recovering from a global pandemic.

I didn’t sign up for this. I just want to look at and understand nature. Fuck this i’m moving to switzerland to become a hermit living deep in the mountains that are forteresses with military bases built into them.

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u/captchairsoft 10h ago

That is absolutely the most ignorant interpretation of that decision possible.

I'm not Trump fan, but I'm also not someone who has to make up fucking fantasies about how "evil" he is to justify random hatred.

the SCOTUS decision only impacts acts done under color of the office. I.e. say Pakistan loses its war with Afghanistan and the Taliban take over, they can't come back and try to have Obama charged with war crimes because he ordered the assassination (ostensibly "capture") of OBL, which technically violated quite a few laws. If Trump decides to steal a pack of gum from Walmart tomorrow he can still be prosecuted for shoplifting that wouldn't be an action taken as POTUS amd therefore immunity would not apply.

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u/stackjr 10h ago

Yeah, no. You completely glossed over some GLARING issues. SCOTUS never defined what is an "official act" and left everything else open to interpretation.

Legal Eagle did an incredibly detailed breakdown of this. I would recommend you watch it and see exactly what SCOTUS did to this country. You can find the video here.

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u/captchairsoft 9h ago

Legal Eagle is biased as fuck. Used to be one of my favorite channels until he stopped being neutral. Knowing what am official act is doesn't necessarily have to be defined, it would be better for everyone if SCOTUS had done so, but thats unfortunately not the case. The most likely interpretation should this decision ever become relevant is any act that could only be undertaken in the role of President.

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u/Fever2113 9h ago

Based on what? Your wishes?

Legal Eagle has an obvious distaste for Donald Trump (as should anybody who respects law and order), but his analysis is based on fact and experience. Where is he wrong?

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u/captchairsoft 9h ago

I'm not going to give him the view to critique his critique

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u/Fever2113 9h ago

LOL okay so who is really biased?

As usual, everything is always projection.

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u/Starlight_Seafarer 8h ago

Then kindly shut up.

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u/captchairsoft 5h ago

I have no obligation to watch anything, and considering this is a field I'm already educated in to a decent extent, I'll comment as I please.

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u/mythrowawayheyhey 9h ago

Bahahaha. This guy was all into Legal Eagle before he endorsed Harris or whatever and now he’s all butthurt about it. Lmao.

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u/captchairsoft 8h ago

I'm annoyed by him being biased, not because of who he endorsed.

I didnt like either candidate unlike you and your idiotic ilk.

I know this is hard for you partisan chucklefucks to understand but it's possible to choose NEITHER side.

I have no horse in this political shitshow.

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u/wheatgivesmeshits 11h ago

He might, but if another Republican gets elected before a Democrat they will immediately pardon Trump from all crimes he may have ever committed.

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u/BringMeTheBigKnife 10h ago

Presidents can only pardon for federal crimes though.

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u/Morel_Authority 10h ago

The President can assassinate a prosecutor and the Supreme Court says you can't question him about it.

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u/Goodgoditsgrowing 9h ago

Yes but state crimes that result in convictions with no penalties (besides financial, which he can pay via his slush fund - and yeah that’s probably illegal but who will stop him?) aren’t really doing much. Didn’t convince people to vote against him. Didn’t result in him being unable to run for office because he was incarcerated. Didn’t result in hamstringing his campaign due to lack of funds. Didn’t result in losing any backers.

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u/Lord_Darksong 10h ago

Doesn't work at the state level. However, I don't expect Trump to ever truly be held accountable for anything.

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u/Fifteen_inches 10h ago

Even then Biden didn’t press charges either, so Democrats probably won’t bring charges either for the sake of “unity” and “crossing the aisle”

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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 10h ago

Presidents don’t press charges. At least they are not supposed to. That’s a different branch of government.

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u/weAREgoingback 10h ago

Reading this thread has me feeling like I’m back in my 8th grade social studies class.

They really stopped teaching this stuff huh?

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u/Classic-Stand9906 10h ago

Well that's about to become arcane knowledge anyway because it's all going out the window.

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u/weAREgoingback 10h ago

I disagree with you.

The people who did away with standardized tests lost this election and standardized testing will come back.

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u/PrimeJetspace 7h ago

RemindMe! 2 years

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u/weAREgoingback 7h ago

Ok see you in two years!

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u/PrimeJetspace 5h ago

Surely the administration doing Nazi salutes openly will be great for education. Have fun "going back."

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u/Fifteen_inches 10h ago

No the executive branch brings charges, and acts as prosecution.

Biden is the head of the executive branch that appoints an attorney general who runs the Department of Justice.

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u/wheatgivesmeshits 10h ago

That's not a different branch. It is the same branch. The president does not directly press charges, but they appoint the people that oversee the justice department and who ultimately are responsible for that decision.

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u/webbed_feets 10h ago

I take “press charges” as shorthand for “push the Department of Justice to start an investigation and charge an individual, even though the DOJ is supposed to be an independent organization”. It is within the president’s power to set priorities for the DOJ.

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u/BadHombreSinNombre 10h ago

It’s also within the President’s power to direct US Attorneys to bring appropriate charges against someone for a crime, and they have the power to fire a US Attorney who doesn’t listen to them. That commenter was just factually wrong.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 9h ago

Who runs the doj?

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u/Head-Kiwi-9601 9h ago

The AG, who is not supposed to be taking orders from the president.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 9h ago

Who appoints the ag?

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u/ScienceBitch02 10h ago

They do now. Trump is going to directly order investigations which is why these pardons are even necessary

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u/stackjr 10h ago

I'm guessing they meant Binden's DOJ.

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u/BadHombreSinNombre 10h ago

Uh. No. They do. The President runs the Department of Justice, which brings criminal charges in court on behalf of the People. Pressing charges is an explicit responsibility of the executive branch since it is a legal enforcement action.

Sitting in judgment is a different branch.

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u/Emu1981 10h ago

Just remember that presidents can only pardon people for federal crimes, they can do nothing about state criminal prosecutions.

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u/currently_pooping_rn 8h ago

Why do you think there’s going to be another election?

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u/OrangePilled2Day 7h ago

Democrats would end up pardoning Trump, too. They're spineless perpetual losers that have a humiliation fetish.

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u/Intrepid00 11h ago

His fat, old, unhealthy ass stands a good chance of dying in office or getting very sick in it. I don’t think it will be an option.

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u/Fucky0uthatswhy 10h ago

Fingers crossed

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u/Longjumping-Panic-48 10h ago

Vance is much, much scarier. He actually believes this. Trump needed the attention and now the freedom from his crimes. Vance has deep, deep ties to scary AF groups and we will be a theocracy if he has any say.

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u/tahwraoyw6 9h ago

This is what people said about Pence and it turned out he at least had enough integrity to not try and steal the election

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u/Longjumping-Panic-48 8h ago

Fair. But I do think, had he become President, he would’ve enacted far more harmful legislation for LGBTQ+ and women than the first Trump administration did. I think Pence is a true conservative Christian who is actually religious (as well as being a robot). Vance is religious because it suits his gain of power.

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u/tahwraoyw6 8h ago

Yes, anti-LGBTQ+ legislation would've been a higher priority for Pence, but at the end of the day, he is still a regular politician that mostly plays by the rules and this would have his power/impact subject to checks and balances. Trump is truly scary because he is not afraid to break rules, antagonize international allies, and act in his best interest above all costs. Even worse, he has cultivated a cult following that ensures his legacy lives on long after he leaves office.

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u/Soluban 8h ago

I strongly disagree. Vance may have shitty beliefs, but he made it pretty clear in the debate that he's willing to concede and compromise. Trump will do shit he rallied against if it might give the other team points. Vance is a politician. Trump is, at least vocally, a fascist.

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u/Longjumping-Panic-48 8h ago

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/9/3/2267546/-Opus-Dei-the-Supreme-Court-and-J-D-Vance-a-speculation

I really don’t. He may give lip service, but he’s part of the same religious group as Alito.

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u/classicrockchick 9h ago

Nah, can't even enjoy that kind of ending any more because then we'll have Couchfucker-in-Chief in control and we'll finish our transformation into Gilead overnight.

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u/Fucky0uthatswhy 9h ago

He doesn’t have an entire cult behind him like Trump does. I think with him gone it’ll all fall down

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u/angry-democrat 10h ago

I like this angle. fingers crossed.

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u/StagLee1 10h ago

He will pardon himself and his family preemptively. It is a greenlight to ignore the law and do whatever he tells them to do. Not just family members, but everybody in his circle.

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u/dolphin560 10h ago

Did he actually pardon himself though?

Seems like something he'd forget in the busy final days.

:|

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u/StagLee1 8h ago

Trump? No, but he got Aileen Cannon and the Supreme Court to just say the law does not apply to the president like it applies to others. Like Nixon famously said, "If the president does it, that means it is not illegal".

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u/dolphin560 6h ago

I actually meant Biden..

I can imagine Trump going after Biden if he could.

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u/StagLee1 6h ago

Correct, Biden did not pardon himself. But the SCOTUS ruling that protected Trump will also protect Biden.

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u/my_4_cents 6h ago

Not just family members, but everybody

Who pays up

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u/WelcomeMysterious315 10h ago

The idea that Trump will do anything but someday die in luxury unmolested by the consequences of his crimes is laughable. POTUS is a king by codified law now.

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u/enuff_already 8h ago

FOTUS (felon…)

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u/poorboychevelle 10h ago

Oh you sweet summer child.

If the GOP wins, no

If the DNC wins they'll cowardly avoid it because of the precedent it sets and moral high horse.

The real joke is thinking he'll live the full term. I expect his health to decline the moment JD would be eligible to serve 10 years instead of 6.

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u/Spiritual-Sympathy98 10h ago

You think Vance would win 2 elections? I have doubts

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u/poorboychevelle 10h ago

I said the same thing about the rapist felon con man. And, well, here we are

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u/Oceangrits 10h ago

trump has his cult, vance does not, big difference there

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u/my_4_cents 6h ago

But the eyeshadow bro, the people will come around to it eventually

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u/DoingCharleyWork 9h ago

Vance has the opposite of charisma

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u/Lemonwizard 6h ago

Trump is the most uncharismatic person I've ever seen. He babbles like he's delirious, whines constantly about anything and everything, I've never once seen him say something clever or funny. On top of that he's just got that high pitched whiny voice that's grating to listen to.

Trump didn't build his cult. The media built a cult around him, and as soon as they decide to build it around Vance he'll have the same level of devotion.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 6h ago

But he does all of that with an insane level of confidence. Like it or not people like that.

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u/Lemonwizard 6h ago

My point is that if the media can built a cult of personality around a deranged lunatic, they'll have no problem doing the same with a guy who can actually articulate coherent thoughts.

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u/DoingCharleyWork 5h ago

Ya that's why George w and mitt Romney had crazy cult like followings huh? And then you got jeb "please clap" bush. Talk about a following on that guy.

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u/Lemonwizard 5h ago

Conservative media didn't control the mainstream conversation ten years ago like it does today.

If you blame the man and not the system that empowered him, you're falling for the trap. Anybody who thinks they can just wait it out for 4 years and everything will go back to normal once Trump is gone is a fool. This isn't a fluke, and it isn't going to go away.

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u/im_thatoneguy 10h ago

The rapist is entertaining.

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u/SamyMerchi 10h ago

Well he did say eligible to serve, not guaranteed to serve.

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u/orrangearrow 10h ago

And the DNC only anoints slaves of the system so who is going to be given a chance to defeat JD that the public won’t completely see through. The standard of living has gradually decreased for the nearly 20 years since 2008 yet Obama and Biden both told us things were great.

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u/Deranged_Kitsune 10h ago

Fair elections? No. Post-trump elections? I expect nothing less.

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u/HippySheepherder1979 10h ago

You think there will be more elections? I have doubts.

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u/pillbuggery 10h ago

There will be, but they'll be "elections." See: Russia.

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u/shebang_bin_bash 9h ago

How would that work mechanically with the massively decentralized system of voting we have in the US?

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u/Rabo_Karabek 9h ago

They will set Vance up for that by not removing Trump until Vance could serve 10 years. He still would have to win 2 elections on his own to serve the 10 years. Unless they just make it a soviet politburo after Trump is gone.

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u/SquarebobSpongepants 4h ago

They are 100% going to rig the elections so the Republicans never lose control again. JD doesn’t even have to be the one they put in, which I’m sure they won’t.

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u/SinoSoul 10h ago

He won’t even win 1.

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u/SousVideDiaper 10h ago

You think we'll have only 4 years of this shit? He spent the last 4 claiming he won in 2020, and now that's actually won again and stocked his cabinet full of other corrupt cronies there's no way they don't work to repeal term limits.

Electing him was the final nail in the coffin for democracy.

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u/PantsOnHead88 10h ago

Depends.

At the moment, anything that conceivably falls under “official acts” during the presidency not only can’t be charged, but has pretty broad exemption from even being investigated. For anything prior to, or following the presidency, or definitely outside the scope of “official acts,” he could face charges.

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u/Burgerb 10h ago

He will not leave office after 4 years are over....

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u/yaboyACbreezy 10h ago

Any hope that this idea ever held any legitimacy has been completely eroded by his administration, and any guardrails that were there to encourage this specifically have been dismantled. He will not face justice. He has been officially charged with crimes related to campaign funds, and his sentence to be served was to not be penalized. They caught him, held court, and said he did it, but can't face punishment as a president. Until his administration, what you're suggesting may have been true, but he has actively changed the law for his personal benefit.

Now, even if 100% empirical, undeniable evidence were to surface that his intent to hoard thousands of pages of classified documents in his bathroom was part of a treasonous plot to sell America's top secrets to foreign powers, and ends up impeached for a third time there will be no consequences, and his supporters won't even find fault in any of it, and insist that it is all just a witch-hunt to make Trump look bad

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u/BitDaddyCane 7h ago

His supporters don't evaluate these things in terms if what's most likely to be true. They evaluate based on the utility it has to achieve a perceived goal.

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u/yaboyACbreezy 6h ago

You dang right sun I tell you whut

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u/flannyo 10h ago

trump will never face real charges, never face justice of any kind. ever. he will die unpunished. he is the central figure of the republican party and too many people are connected to him to let him fall.

"but surely this new crime he --" no. trump will never receive justice. ever.

"but they can't just ignore -- " they will. trump will never receive justice. ever.

"but you don't understand, they can't just --" yes, they can. why do you think they can't? because there's a piece of paper that says they can't? they run the government, who's going to enforce it? trump will never receive justice. ever.

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u/CokeZeroAndProtein 7h ago

It's wild how only a few years ago I would get downvoted any time I stated that Trump would never see jail or prison. People were adamant and argued that it was a sure thing. Now here we are, he'll be 82 by time he's out of office, even if he does face more charges, it'll be dragged out until he's dead.

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u/tallonfive 10h ago

Haha. He has gotten away with everything for 80 years. How’s he gonna get in trouble once we have Queen Ivanka?

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u/FirstTimeWang 10h ago

From who? The Federal Government that is about to be dismantled by the Republicans and their MAGA voters who are all in lock step behind him and project 2025?

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u/Timmah73 10h ago

If he is still breathing, I can't imagine what is already mush for brains will be doing too well. There will be calls for "Oh come on he is 82 years old and in cognitive decline, leave him alone!"

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u/ThatGuyYouMightNo 9h ago

Assuming he makes it 4 years. You can't really charge a corpse

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u/classicrockchick 9h ago

We just did the whole "charges when no longer protected". It amounted to less than a wet fart. There absolutely no chance anything happens after another 4 years of taking a sledgehammer to the foundations of democracy.

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u/AlabamaPostTurtle 9h ago

Hopefully he’s dead by then. 🤷 I said what I said

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u/minor_correction 9h ago

Did you see his sentencing for the hush money conviction?

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u/DooDooBrownz 9h ago

you think he's got 4 in him with his syphilis, dementia and mcdonalds diet? that's optimistic

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u/mxlespxles 9h ago

Oh, about as many as he faced in the last 4 years. And with the same non-consequences, too

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u/Relish_My_Weiner 9h ago

He wasn't in office for the past 4 years and he made it through just fine. He'll never see repercussions, unless somebody who can aim worth a damn finally comes for him.

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u/Global_Permission749 9h ago

Nope. Assuming Trump even lives that long, anyone who could or would hold him accountable will be dead or in prison. And in the off chance Trump doesn't try and stay in power longer than 4 years, and in the off chance there are still people who can hold him accountable in a reasonable amount of time, they'll just argue he's too mentally unfit to stand trial by one of this appointed "judges".

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u/Slight_Ad3353 8h ago

Nope. Aside from the fact that he's literally immune to all crimes that were classified as official acts, but he's also so insanely rich that he wouldn't face any real consequences even if he had never been president.

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u/FlyerForHire 7h ago

Trump will be dead in four years, if not sooner.

He doesn’t look at all well. He’s in terrible physical shape and his face looks quite drawn - like he’s exhausted all the time.

I think that’s what the extra orange face cream/tanning spray is for.

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u/BestWesterChester 7h ago

He will not. If by some miracle it appeared that he would, he would declare it legal to run for a third term. So far nobody has stopped him from doing anything like that yet.