--- title: Donald Trump Pardon: Can He Pardon Himself? description: Can President Trump legally pardon himself? The answer is probably not. canonical: https://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-07-21T13:55:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-13T05:33:02.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Can President Trump Pardon Himself? og:description: Probably not, but it's an unanswered question. og:url: https://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e8df1f149815c80/6988d6207cdbacad3ed593f7/donald-trump-health-care-bill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5251 og:image:height: 2954 og:image:alt: Donald Trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Can President Trump Pardon Himself? twitter:description: Probably not, but it's an unanswered question. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2e8df1f149815c80/6988d6207cdbacad3ed593f7/donald-trump-health-care-bill.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Can President Trump Pardon Himself? > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:33 AM UTCPublished: Jul 21, 2017 1:55 PM UTC  President Donald Trump pauses while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. President Donald Trump pauses while having lunch with services members in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Updated: Dec 13, 2023 5:33 AM UTCPublished: Jul 21, 2017 1:55 PM UTC President Trump tweeted Monday morning that “numerous legal scholars” have said that he has “the absolute right” to pardon himself. But in the past, the official position of the executive branch was that a president could not self-pardon. > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003616210922147841) The Constitution says that the president “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” It’s true that this text doesn’t explicitly rule out the possibility of a self-pardon. (And it’s also an unanswered legal question as to whether a president can be [indicted while in office](http://time.com/4823481/robert-mueller-special-counsel-legal-questions-trump/).) But a self-pardon would run afoul of a bedrock legal principle in the United States, according to a 1974 [memo](https://www.justice.gov/file/20856/download) written by the Office of Legal Counsel under President Nixon. (The Supreme Court has never actually ruled on the issue.) **Read More:** [_President Trump Says He Can Pardon Himself. Most Voters Disagree_](http://time.com/5311182/donald-trump-self-pardon-poll/) “Under the fundamental rule that no one may be a judge in his own case, the President cannot pardon himself,” the memo declared days before Nixon resigned amid the Watergate scandal. The document does say there could be a loophole. “If under the 25th Amendment the President declared that he was temporarily unable to perform the duties of the office, the Vice President would become Acting President and as such could pardon the President,” it says. “Thereafter the President could either resign or resume the duties of his office.” Outside of the legal questions, there would certainly be political complications if Trump tried to pardon himself, and the blowback could result in the Republican-controlled House impeaching him to remove him from office. Over the weekend, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani also argued that Trump would have the power to pardon himself, but said he probably wouldn’t because of the “unthinkable” political ramifications. “It could lead to impeachment,” Giuliani [said on NBC’s _Meet the Press_](http://time.com/5299599/giuliani-trump-mueller-investigation-pardon/) of Trump pardoning himself. “If he terminated an investigation of himself it could lead to all kinds of things.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4868108/donald-trump-pardon-himself/"},"headline":"Can President Trump Pardon Himself?","datePublished":"2017-07-21T13:55:38.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-13T05:33:02.000Z","description":"Can President Trump legally pardon himself? 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