According to the constitution, US President Donald Trump has the right to pardon some of those convicted, and he can still use this right during his last days in office, raising questions about whether he would benefit from it and about the restrictions that could limit his powers.

Trump issued pardons to his supporters, most notably earlier this year when he commuted the criminal sentence of Roger Stone, who was sentenced to prison after being found guilty of lying under oath to lawmakers.

The following are the most important questions related to this constitutional right:

What is the power to pardon?


The authority to pardon stipulated in the constitution is one of the broadest powers enjoyed by the president. The founding fathers saw pardons as a means of showing mercy and serving the public interest.

While pardons are usually issued for those on trial, they can include conduct for which legal action has not yet been taken.

The pardon is not reviewed by other branches of the government, and the president is not obligated to give reasons for his pardon.

There is an amnesty that wipes out the criminal conviction, and there is a different form of executive amnesty, known as commutation, but the conviction remains the same despite the abolition of its sentence.

The amnesty applies primarily to federal crimes. For example, it would not protect Trump's comrades from the criminal investigation being conducted by Manhattan Attorney General Cyrus Vance, which began more than two years ago to investigate financial payments made by former Trump attorney Michael Cohen before the 2016 elections to two women who said they had met Nationality with Trump.

The attorney general indicated that the investigation has now expanded and could focus on possible banking, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of commercial records.

Can Trump pardon his family members?


Yes, in 2001 President Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger, who was convicted of possessing cocaine in Arkansas, and pardoned about 450 people, including a Democratic donor who fled the country on charges of tax evasion.

Who else can Trump pardon?


Trump has said he can pardon Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who has confessed to the crime of lying to the FBI, over discussions he had with a Russian official prior to Trump's inauguration in 2017.

While Flynn awaits his verdict, he has sought to withdraw his confession, and Trump may preemptively pardon him, as well as his personal attorney and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who is investigating federal prosecutors in Manhattan over whether he violated lobbyist laws in his dealings in Ukraine.

Flynn tried to withdraw his confession of lying during the (French) trial.

Can Trump pardon himself?


There is no definitive answer to this question. The president has not tried to do so before, and Trump said in 2018 that he had the "absolute right" to pardon himself.

Many legal experts say that pardon is unconstitutional, as it violates the basic principle that no one should be the judge in their case.

Could the vice president take office and pardon Trump?


In a memorandum in 1974, a lawyer from the Department of Justice said that President Richard Nixon could not pardon himself, but that there was another constitutional option, which was to temporarily step down, obtain a pardon from his deputy, and then regain the position.

In order for Nixon to do so, he would have had to activate Article 25 of the constitution that allows an incapacitated president to temporarily step down.

Nixon eventually resigned over the Watergate scandal, then his successor Gerald Ford pardoned any federal crimes he had committed or might have committed during his tenure.

Corey Britschneider, professor of political science at Brown University, said he did not believe Trump Vice Mike Pence wanted such a thing on his record.