Former Mueller deputy predicts Trump will pardon himself if he doesn’t win reelection

Andrew Weissmann, a deputy to former special counsel Robert Mueller, predicted that President Trump will pardon himself and several family members if he does not win reelection this November.

“I suspect strongly that if the president does not win reelection, that he is going to pardon a lot more people related to the Trump Organization, his family, people who work there, and even himself,” Weissmann told NPR in an interview on his book tour. “That’s obviously never been done. A president has never pardoned himself and that could be challenged by the Department of Justice if it decided it was going to go ahead with a criminal prosecution.”

Weissmann did not specify for which specific actions he believed Trump would pardon himself.

Mueller’s team investigated ties between the Trump campaign and Russian officials and whether the president worked to obstruct the probe. It ultimately did not recommend any charges.

Weissmann has said the investigative team should have taken more aggressive actions in its probe, saying in September he would have subpoenaed Trump if he were in Mueller’s shoes.

Trump has said in the past he has the power to pardon himself but will not because he has not done anything illegal. 

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) announced in August she is investigating if Trump illegally inflated his assets to attract investors and earn loans, and any state charges brought in connection to that or any other case would not be covered by a presidential pardon.