...is the title of this piece in Politico. Not "Why Trump Won't Pardon Roger Stone", but "Can't".

Quote

Some scholars agree that once a president has been impeached, he or she loses the power to pardon anyone for criminal offenses connected to the articles of impeachment.

"Some scholars" agree that the United States would never elect a narcissistic megalomaniac as president. But so we did.

Quote

[George] Mason thought the danger of the pardon was so great that it was among the reasons he argued [in 1788 that] the Constitution should not be ratified, and why he refused to sign the document. “The President ought not to have the power of pardoning, because he may frequently pardon crimes which were advised by himself. It may happen, at some future day, that he will establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic. If he has the power of granting pardons before indictment, or conviction, may he not stop inquiry and prevent detection?”

Ah...yup. Yes, he may. And did. (Bright, forward thinking guy, that Mason).

So what now?

I'm not one of those that thinks Trump will not leave office if he loses - I think if he seriously believes he's going to lose, it's more likely he would declare to his Deplorables that the swamp was too deep, the process is stacked against him and he'll leave the race (and the GOP in the lurch).

But in any case, this Politico argument sounds like so much whistling past the graveyard to me. I think at some point we've got to clarify or modify this pardon power of the POTUS.

More proof that interpreting the Constitution by divining the thoughts and intentions of the Founding Fathers (amen)--which seem to favor modern Conservatism, miraculously--is a smoke screen for sophistry. They knew it had holes even then.