The pardon power of the President is absolute.
Trump has begun dangling pardons to officials if they will break the law on his orders.
Do you see where this is going?
Up to now, Trump has been thwarted at nearly every turn by the federal courts. But Trump has found a way to overcome the rule of law: the pardon power. Trump will now find people who will follow his illegal orders, and if they are called to account by a pesky judge, he will pardon them. Joe Arpaio was the test case.
The only thing that prevented DHS from flouting the law and turning away all asylum seekers at the southern border, after Trump personally asked them to do so two weeks ago, was that career civil servants refused to break the law. A week later Trump fired DHS Secretary Neilsen (and the Deputy Secretary) when Neilsen refused to order DHS officials to illegally turn away asylum seekers. If the new Acting Secretary won’t violate the law on Trump’s order, Trump will fire him, too. And Trump will keep on firing people until he finds someone who will follow illegal orders.
Now Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin has ordered the head of the IRS to violate the law and refuse to produce Trump’s tax returns. The law is crystal clear and has already survived a Constitutional challenge in the Supreme Court. Mnuchin risks five years in prison, and short of that could be ordered by a judge to produce the returns or face criminal contempt—yet he is unconcerned. Mnuchin has likely already accepted a pardon offer.
The danger cannot be overstated. We stand at the threshold of dictatorship.