Nixon Pardons himself?

First off, would this even be legal? If it is legal, and Nixon is cleared of all charges, how would America, the Democrats, the Republicans, the world react? Would there might be some changes to the Constitution later?
 
The constitution prohibits the pardon as a remedy for impeachment. Congress only needs a simple majority to do so. They just need to be "on the ball" to prevent the pardon from happening.
 

wormyguy

Banned
He can pardon himself of criminal charges (i.e. - he can't be put in jail), but he can't pardon himself to prevent impeachment.
 
So, to pardon himself, Nixon would have to do so after the justice department declared criminal charges and before congress issued an impeachment. Keep the time window short and the pardon does not happen.
 
Once he had worked out that he had to resign (that is that impeachment, conviction and removal from office were certain if he stayed on) he could I think legally have pardoned himself.

It might actually have helped Ford a lot.
 
Even if Congress did impeach him and run him out of office, wouldn't Ford just pardon him anyways?
 
Once he had worked out that he had to resign (that is that impeachment, conviction and removal from office were certain if he stayed on) he could I think legally have pardoned himself.

It might actually have helped Ford a lot.

As long as the congress was willing to go along with this.

And they might just do that, though it would involve a level a participation/negotiation comparable to that of the prosecutors who got Spiro Agnew to resign in exchange for a softer deal (that's what happened, right? Or am I conflating Agnew's case with Eliot Spitzer's?)

This would be very interesting.

Who is it that gives Nixon this get-out-gaol-at-a-price card? Mansfield? Ervin? The GOP elders who tapped Nixon on the shoulder? The House judiciary committee?

Gaming it out politically:
If it's the Democratic leadership, then this will inflame rightwing opinion, and probably leads to a landslide Reagan victory at the convention in '76 as a 'dolchstoss' candidate.

If it's the Republican leaders, and they've arranged it as a way of protecting what's left of Nixon's dignity, then this frees up Ford to begin the process of 'national healing' without having to do the dirty work of pardoning Nixon himself.

That's the broad politics.

Constitutionally & legislatively this will lead to a lot of action in codifying the pardon laws, and possibly not just at the federal level.

F'rinstance, what if a process of review takes place in every state? What if governors end up losing their right to issues death penalty pardons and commute sentences?
 
Other problem with Nixon's self pardon and Ford's in OTL- Did Nixon commit any crimes against any state laws? (I suspect he might have)

In the case of a self pardon I think there would be more apetite in states to prosecute the criminal
 
Constitutional crisis. I suppose it goes straight to the Supreme Court, who will immediately rule on whether or not the sitting President can pardon himself. If the Court rules that Nixon can, I imagine outrage is going to spread among the public, enough for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning the President from pardoning himself in the future.
 
Constitutional crisis. I suppose it goes straight to the Supreme Court, who will immediately rule on whether or not the sitting President can pardon himself. If the Court rules that Nixon can, I imagine outrage is going to spread among the public, enough for Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning the President from pardoning himself in the future.

I don't think the uproar would be enough to amend the constitution. One inherent casualty of a representative government is that people in high places can get a bit of a "bye" when it comes to abusing power. Though nobody is above the law, elected officials from town mayor to sheriff to the president will always be able to bend the law before they are caught. Our best recourse is the current system, and of course, election day.
 
Nixon's attorneys advised him that self-pardon was an option, but he refused, insisting to the bitter end that he had not done anything wrong. Fortunately for him, his staff got Ford to pardon him instead.

After Ford pardoned Nixon, Senator Mondale proposed a constitutional amendment that would let Congress veto a Presidential pardon (if both houses agreed to do so by a 2/3 majority, within 180 days of the pardon).
 
Nixon's attorneys advised him that self-pardon was an option, but he refused, insisting to the bitter end that he had not done anything wrong. Fortunately for him, his staff got Ford to pardon him instead.
Yeah, I was gonna say that too. Nixon truly believed that if the President did it, it wasn't illegal, and that he had not done anything wrong and that by pardoning himself, he would be admitting guilt, and he didn't think he was guilty. This is why, if I recall, he was at least a bit pissed when Ford pardoned him. Then again, Ford could be credited with preventing Nixon for self destructing any further with that.

The problem here is a big and common one with many alternate histories; to change an event, you would have to change a person's personality, but by doing that, you negate all history involving that person since their actions and life were based on their personality.
 
Norton, what about a Fluke event? Say a man doesn't notice that the hotel's been burgled?

And btw, i am currently threadjacking the Noahite flood thread in the chat forums to oen on Maple syrup.
 
The problem here is a big and common one with many alternate histories; to change an event, you would have to change a person's personality, but by doing that, you negate all history involving that person since their actions and life were based on their personality.

You're right about Nixon's intense pride, but he was pretty mercurial.

Maybe if he's convinced that he can't survive earlier than he did IOTL he comes to see self-pardoning as his last opportunity to exercise control and to infuriate the liberals, regardless of the assumption of guilt.
 
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