I doubt that Trump can legally pardon himself. The fact that we are having to ask the question is so very very sad https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/24/could-trump-issue-himself-a-pardon/?utm_term=.5aac3e6356f6
We can all only speculate what would happen if the president tried to do it, said Brian Kalt, professor of law at Michigan State University and author of the book Constitutional Cliffhangers. Were all just predicting what the court would do if it happened, but no one can be sure.
The constitutional language governing pardons reads, The President
shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment. That vagueness is part of the reason the boundaries of the authority would need to be interpreted by the courts in unusual cases, like the one at hand.
That said, Kalts got an opinion about what the Supreme Court would do if Trump (or any president) tried to give himself a pardon: Theyd throw it out.
Kalts reasons are similarly rooted in interpretations of the language of the Constitution and the intent of its authors.
For example, a pardon is inherently something that you get from someone else, he argued. Thats not explicit in the constitutional language, but, then, other boundaries we understand for pardons arent either, such as our understanding that there need not be a criminal charge before a pardon. (The most famous example of this kind of pardon was offered by President Gerald Ford to his predecessor, Richard Nixon.)
P.S. Ruckman, professor of political science at Northern Illinois University and author of the blog Pardon Power agreed with this idea in an email. Supreme Court jurisprudence has always assumed a dichotomy the granter and the recipient, he said the implication being that one person cant play both roles.
Whats more, presidents are supposed to be limited, Kalt said. The president has all of this power, but he has a limited term. If he was able to pardon himself, that would project his power well past his term.