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Jed Shugerman Profile picture
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24 Dec, 5 tweets, 3 min read
A worthy 3d option if Trump self-pardons, @eliehonig @AshaRangappa_:
3) DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel writes the first in-depth memo explaining why self-pardons are invalid. New AG says declining to prosecute is discretion, not acceptance.
Then let state prosecutors indict Trump.
I get the need to negate the damage Trump has done.
But sometimes "negating" doesn't mean prosecuting.

We can undo Trump's damage by restoring DOJ independence, using executive power thoughtfully, & embracing federalism.
Let's avoid Pardon Panic:
To all of you celebrating Christmas, merry Christmas.
As a progressive Jew, I'll embrace Christmas & mercy:

Let's stop hating on pardons.
Yes, Trump is abusing this power, and I've proposed moderate judicial checks, but let's not over-react/ over-correct.
More mercy, not less.
(To be clear, I’m not subtweeting anyone in particular “hating on pardons,” but just observing that there is a widespread anti-pardon backlash - and too many proposals to sharply curtail the pardon power generally. I haven’t seen @eliehonig or @AshaRangappa_ suggest such limits)
This is what I’m talking about.
@ChrisMurphyCT, this is a bad take:

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More from @jedshug

Jed Shugerman Profile picture
25 Dec
I've been getting inquiries worrying that Pence will block the Biden electoral college win when he presides in the Senate on January 6th.
Don't worry.
Neither the 12th A nor the Electoral Count Act does not give him that power.
*Short* thread 1/
2/ The 12th Amendment merely designates the President of the Senate (the VP) to "open all the certificates." But then uses the passive voice: "the votes shall then be counted."
Implicitly, Congress does the counting.
The Electoral Count Act is more detailed on the count process.
3/ Sorry for the double negative in the first tweet.
I meant:
"Neither the 12th A nor the Electoral Count Act gives [the Vice President] that power."...
Read 8 tweets
Jed Shugerman Profile picture
21 Dec
Read this by Erica Newland, who worked in DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel 2016-18, showing a glimpse of Steve Engel's disastrous role.

Sessions & Barr are household-name villains, but it's time to examine other lawyers who enabled Trump's crimes.
/Thread. nytimes.com/2020/12/20/opi…
2/ In this thread, I focus on one pivotal episode in which Engel covered up key facts about Trump's Ukraine bribery/conspiracy felony.
Engel tried to bury the whisteblower complaint.
Some background/reminder first:
cnn.com/politics/live-…
3/ The phone call was July 25, 2019.
The whistleblower filed a complaint w/ IG Atkinson Aug 12, who found it "an urgent concern" on Aug 26.
Under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, the DNI (Maguire) should have sent it to Congress w/in 7 days...
Read 9 tweets
Jed Shugerman Profile picture
18 Dec
Self-pardons are bad, but the unprecedented suggestion of "un-pardons" is worse.
Lord have mercy, so to speak.
This op-ed is also yet another example of the "pardon panic" genre that gets pardon law and Burdick embarrassingly wrong:
Pardons are not confessions of guilt.
@CBHessick:
I am calling for a complete and total shutdown of pardon op-eds until breathless pundits take a deep breath, actually read Burdick, and figure out what is going on.
(I'm tagging Carissa because she has been so right on these questions. She did not write this op-ed, to be clear!)
Read 4 tweets
Jed Shugerman Profile picture
8 Dec
This thread on Doug Jones as AG raises problems of the modern Crony AG model, as opposed to what I’ve called the Professional or Politico model - at precisely the time we need more professional independence at DOJ.
Jones would be a Crony mistake, either real or perceived.
2/ My article here from 2019 on the Professional/Politico/Crony models for AG in US history.

If I hadn't seen this thread, I'd have set Jones more as "professional" (long-term background w/in DOJ). But Biden picks Jones, how can he not be seen as a Crony?
ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/flr/vol87/iss5…
3/ Democrats picked more Crony AGs in the first half of the 20th century. But since Nixon, Republicans generally picked Crony AGs.
No Democrat has appointed a Crony AG since JFK had his brother RFK.

I sincerely hope Biden does not make a Cronyist mistake.
Read 5 tweets
Jed Shugerman Profile picture
1 Dec
In other words, Trump Org’s 2020 business plan:
Pardon Club for Men:
“I’m not only the president. I’m also a client!”

8 pages are completely back-out redacted, but it does say “over 50 devices” like phones and laptops were seized.
Pardon me?
That’s a lot of warrants.
Read 4 tweets
Jed Shugerman Profile picture
1 Dec
After investing a lot of time researching & questioning the law of pardons, I think the left is too worked up about the validity of Trump pardons:

1. Of the concrete issues facing the US in 2021, it's not even close to the top 100.
2. State crim law covers the worst conduct.
3. Pardon panic is producing too many unforced errors by journalists and legal commentators.
For example, accepting a pardon is NOT an admission of guilt according to American law & practice, no matter what you've read on this website:
4. The eagerness to interpret accepting a pardon as evidence of guilt runs roughshod over the presumption of innocence, doubts about prosecutorial power, the value of mercy, and years of work using DNA exonerations for pardons:
Read 5 tweets

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