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by stickfigure 587 days ago
Incorrect. A pardon does require a conviction, however. And it will probably never get that far.
4 comments

> A pardon does require a conviction, however

No.

"The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment" [1]. Everything after that is, at best, case law.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_pardons_in_the_United_...

Can't stand these sort of arrogantly wrong comments. If you're going to be snarky about it at least be right.
Incorrect. There is no requirement that even an indictment has occurred in the past.
"I hereby pardon you for murder. Nope, you didn't murder anyone, and you haven't been indited on murder charges!"

Technically sure, you're correct. The worst kind of correct.

>"I hereby pardon you for murder. Nope, you didn't murder anyone, and you haven't been indited on murder charges!"

You have a reading challenge. GP said conviction required, which is not true. You can be pardoned for something you did but nobody knows you did it.

It can backfire though, you no longer have 5th amendment privileges because you can't say anything incriminating (you're pardon'd from the crime).

So you have the take the stand and testify.

Testify to what?
Pretty much whatever you got pardon'd for.

> [1] The pardon would have put Nixon in a difficult position on the witness stand since he would not have been able to assert any Fifth Amendment privilege when questioned about his actions as president.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Richard_Nixon#Afterm...

> Incorrect. There is no requirement that even an indictment has occurred in the past.

This thread started with that statement, which is what I based my comments on.

To take the piss on it, only a fool would pardon someone for a crime of which they are not accused.

Are you implying that point?

Hence how all the draft dodgers were pardoned after Vietnam.
How then did Ford pardon Nixon?