Sky News Australia published this video item, entitled “‘Accepting a pardon it is essentially accepting a guilty plea’” – below is their description.
Perth USAsia CEO Gordon Flake says it’s “not clear” if President Donald Trump can pardon himself from any potential future federal prosecutions but if he did it would amount to a “guilty plea”. “The law on this is not entirely clear,” Professor Flake told Sky News. “There’s, as you’d imagine, a hearty debate about that given the propensity of this president to kind of break longstanding political norms if not legal ones. “What is clear is that federal pardons only deal with federal crimes, and so they don’t deal with state crimes and they also only deal with things up to that point so obviously it’s not a pardon for life. “If there are other things that come up in the future that are unrelated to the issue they are pardoned for, it doesn’t apply to that. “The important thing to recognise here, though, is in accepting a pardon it is essentially accepting a guilty plea. Professor Flake said President Trump has used his power to pardon less than most of his recent predecessors. “The only difference is clemency is generally granted to people out there in society writ-large who have been ill-treated by the justice system,” Professor Flake said. “In this case, the president tends to be focusing on people who are directly tied to him.” “I fully anticipate there will be more, and, again, in breaking with past presidents they will be pardons that are tied specifically to the president, and that’s what will be controversial in the coming weeks ahead. Professor Flake’s remarks came after President Trump pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts in the 2016 election. Mr Flynn sought to withdraw his guilty plea at the beginning of this year. It’s the highest-profile pardon issued by the president since he took office.
Sky News Australia YouTube Channel
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