presidential pardon power

trivia

is not absolute. The 1974 Supreme Court case United States v. Nixon makes clear that executive privilege is reduced radically in a criminal investigation. The president must surrender documents and give testimony on all relevant matters demanded by prosecutors, except for military secrets, diplomatic secrets and sensitive national security matters.

The Trump team letter committed a third error by failing to address United States v. Nixon, a 1974 Supreme Court case that addressed subpoenas to the president. The Nixon case makes clear that the president enjoys broad and wide executive privilege — the ability to keep presidential documents and testimony away from Congress and the courts — in his ordinary work. But the Nixon case also makes clear that executive privilege is reduced radically in a criminal investigation. If subpoenaed in that context, the president must surrender documents and give testimony on all relevant matters demanded by the prosecutors, except for military secrets, diplomatic secrets and sensitive national security matters. None of those pertains to Mueller's likely subpoena to Trump, and Giuliani knows that.

is absolute and beyond the reach of the criminal justice system. If the president ordered Jim Comey shot in the Oval Office, he couldn't be prosecuted because the president can pardon himself.

To soften the tone of this poorly received letter, the White House dispatched Rudy Giuliani, the president's most visible legal spokesperson, to address the issues that his colleagues had raised. He made matters worse when he suggested that if the president ordered Jim Comey "shot in the Oval Office," he couldn't be prosecuted because the president can pardon himself and because the president's personal and presidential behavior is beyond the reach of the criminal justice system.

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