Even Rudy Giuliani thought her plan to seek blanket immunity, before breaching Georgia voting machines, was āover the top,ā according to a new book by reporters Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman.
As allies of Donald Trump schemed to seize voting machines in swing states after the 2020 election, Sidney Powell proposed issuing preemptive pardonsāwhich the team described as āhunting licensesāāto shield them from legal liability, according to a new book by investigative reporters Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman.
āI need six to eight pardons,ā the former Trump attorney said in a Virginia planning meeting, according to Find Me the Votes, excerpts of which were reviewed by Vanity Fair ahead of its January 30 publication date. āWhat we need is a āhunting licenseā that provides top cover for ops,ā a member of Powellās team wrote to Lin Wood, another Trump lawyer involved in the effort to overturn Joe Bidenās 2020 victory, according to Isikoff and Klaidman.
According to Isikoff and Klaidman, the team asked Michael Trimarco, an associate of Rudy Giulianiās, to get the former New York City mayor to approve the pardon proposal. But Giuliani ādismissed the idea as over the top,ā according to the book. Trimarco apparently agreed, recalling that he thought, āWhat the fuck?ā as the group mulled the idea.
Trump could not have pardoned himself because pardoning is not a thing people can do to themselves. Donāt normalize the idea that it is.
Imagine people saying āI pardon myselfā after bumping into you on the street. Thatās the level of absurdity weāre at.
None of that logic works.
Random people canāt legally pardon anyone. Thatās why they canāt pardon themselves.
The President can legally pardon people accused of federal crimes. Itās only common sense that stops one from pardoning themselves, not the law.
Iām advocating for the meaning of words in the constitution meaning what theyāve always meant. Thereās no need or justification for inventing some new legal meaning for a word the authors of the Constitution didnāt see fit to define.