united-states us-constitution pardon
Is a presidential self pardon more likely to be valid if issued to a group instead of the president as an individual
<p>My understanding is, the presidential pardon power is based on this passage of the US constitution:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for
Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of impeachment.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I've <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/11/one-word-bars-trump-pardoning-himself/617170/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">read</a> that one issue* with the uncertainty about the legality/validity of presidential self pardons is the word &quot;grant&quot; wasn't really used in the context of &quot;grant myself&quot; at the time the constitution was written.</p>
<p>But the pardon power can also apply to entire groups of people. And the president can belong to a group. Based on this, would a presidential pardon become more likely to be legal/valid if it applied to a group of people that included the president, instead of just to the individual? Even if the group was very small and the attempt rather transparent (e.g. &quot;the Trump family&quot;, or &quot;current and former Presidents of the United States of America&quot;)?</p>
<hr />
<p>*I'm aware that this is not the only issue, and a possible answer is that the &quot;grant&quot; issue is dwarfed by more relevant legal arguments.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution-conan/article-2/section-2/clause-1/pardons-and-reprieves" rel="nofollow noreferrer">This article</a> sums up the state of the law regarding presidential pardon power. In no case has the court ruled that there are people who are unpardonable. There is no question that a presidential pardon is only available for criminal offenses against the US (not civil contempt of court, but including <em>criminal</em> contempt). Presidential pardons do not require higher approval.</p>

<p>There is no precedent for a Presidential self-pardon, and the White House counsel's office has opined that this is not permitted. There is debate within academic legal scholarship over whether a self-pardon is constitutional, although the majority view is that it is not. The fact that a pardon was made to a group in a blanket pardon of certain offenses would not change the analysis significantly.</p>
<p>A previous post at Law.SE analyzing the issue of Presidential self-pardons is <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/22562/can-president-of-the-united-states-pardon-himself-if-convicted-of-treason-or-som">here</a>.</p>
