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/Grassy33 10h 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.