If Trump colluded with Russia, and Trump knows that proof is imminent, could he use this method to protect himself and the GOP in 2020?
Step 1: Trump Pardons every possible person related to the happenings, then resigns his presidency. And yes, he can pardon people before they ae charged, just as Ford did Nixon.
Step 2: Mike Pence, in his only act as President, pardons former President Trump, then resigns himself.
Pence has yet to be accused of wrongdoing in the matter, and in fact wasn't named as Trump's running mate on the dates that are being looked at, so Pence will not be in need of a pardon.
Step 3: Pence resigns, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, another man who wouldnt have been involved, is next in line.
President Ryan strongly condemns the actions and subsequent pardons and promises a new era of honesty and transparency to the American people and rolls up his sleaves and gets to work, in an era where the Russian investigation is irrelevant and behind us. (No one left to prosecute due to the pardons)
Result: Trump and company ae off the hook, and uninvolved Paul Ryan will likely not be dogged by it in 2020.
If the Russians wanted Trump, then why did they feed the misinformation to Hillary Campaign in the dossier?
You want Collusion? It's slapping you upside the head.
Also, ' Collusion ' is not a word that exists in any legal statute, so you're going to have to find an actual crime. Aside from that, Flynn or Manafort may have not filed required documents or something, but it's never going to reach Trump.
The GOP would be destroyed if any steps in your question actually happened.
COLLUSION IS NOT A CRIME
TRUMP 2020
As long as Hillary ends up in jail
The Mueller investigation is a witch hunt everyone knows that.
even the "experts" at CNN, MSNBC, and so forth have been questioning how quickly, and the all of the sudden charges are. As if they aren't related to the NYT's, and Washington posts recent revelations into uranium one, the dossier, and the email scandals.
Your mom colluded with your dad to make an idiot baby
He can't use a presidential pardon to obstruct the judicial process, oh wait a minute.Arpaio!
If Manafort (or whoever) is pardoned by Trump at the federal level isn't he still open to prosecution by the state?
I don't agree with your conclusion on this statement one little bit "Result: Trump and company ae off the hook, and uninvolved Paul Ryan will likely not be dogged by it in 2020." - I'm pretty sure Ryan, Pence and ilk would be crucified in the world of public opinion if they did what you suggest. Assuming you are correct and such pardons work out that way and the states can't make a case (for whatever reason), it wouldn't stop the details of the scandal from becoming public and hence wouldn't stop the anger over it either.
Well what would Obama do and if trump did that what is the difference.
If there's evidence that the Trump campaign actively colluded with Russia and committed crimes, that would be the most shocking political scandal in American history. It will create a constitutional crisis. It would be the biggest betrayal to the American people and our democratic values.
Even the hardline Republicans in Congress will call for Pence to take the oath of office. Trump won't have the time to pardon anyone. All it takes is two collaborators to testify against Trump to be charged with criminal treason which is punishable by death.
- Will Donald Trump be re-elected in 2020? I know that incumbent presidents usually get re-elected, but there have been exceptions (Gerald Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980, and George H.W. Bush in 1992), so, do you believe Trump would win in 2020? Also, who do you believe the Democrats would get to run against him?
- Which will be finished first? The FBI investigation of Kavanaugh or Mueller's Russia probe? Christine Ford's lawyer Debra Katz said no "artificial limits as to time or scope should be imposed on this investigation." When asked if they could get the investigation done in a week, a senior FBI official told Fox News, "That depends on the schedules of everyone we'd have to interview, including the accuser, accused and witnesses."
- What would happen if, on this night, Trump pardoned Manafort, Gates, Cohen, Flynn, Kushner, Papodopolous, Trump Jr and himself? And no, at the Federal level, you do NOT need to be convicted in order to be pardoned. In fact, you don't even need to be charged. Case in point, Ford pardoned Nixon of all possible charges related to the Watergate cover-up without any charges having been levied against him.
- Trump just said he doesn't care if Ford was lying or not, the important thing is the GOP won. Can we pretty much assume any conservative? Is lying every time they speak from now on? Like we didn't know already. Taking a lie away from a conservative is like taking a porkchop away from a pitbull.