The President ... shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.Let's assume Trump is right. What consequences could this have?
For one thing, it would put is squarely in the bearded-Spock mirror universe.
- Vice President Mike Pence could have Trump assassinated, then (as President) pardon himself and the assassins.
- Speaker of the House Paul Ryan could have Trump and Pence both assassinated, then (as President) pardon himself and the assassins.
- Senate President Pro Tempore Orrin Hatch could have all of the above assassinated, then (as President) pardon himself and the assassins.
- Secretary of State Rex Tillerson could have all of the above assassinated, then (as President) pardon himself and the assassins.
- You get the idea. It keeps on like this down the order of succession.
On the other hand, the Constitution does not allow a President to pardon impeachments. This isn't much of a problem really, though, if a President can have the Congress murdered and then pardon himself and the other murderers.
Like most Republicans, Trump claims to respect the original intent of the authors of the Constitution. Does anyone really think this is what they had in mind? Bear in mind, these were men who had rebelled against the British king for far less, and who had signed off on the words of the Declaration of Independence:
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
As importantly, the Founding Fathers knew the story of the Rape of Lucretia, by Sextus Tarquinius, son of Lucius Tarquinius Superbus, the king of Rome. More specifically, and not at all coincidentally, the last king of Rome: the rape so scandalized the Roman people that they overthrew the monarchy. The Founding Fathers understood that some outrages cannot be swept under the carpet by clever wordplay by lawyers, because the Romans are not the only people who could cast off a whole system.
If nothing was explicitly written about this in the Constitution, it is because Rule of Law is a prerequisite for any democracy and for any republic, and any President who lacks the wisdom to know this already would not feel constrained by any mere "scrap of paper".
