Jonathan Turley Says Blanket Pardons Are 'A Strong Possiblity'

In her preface, Rachel Maddow suggested possible pardons for Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, and former newspaper owner Conrad Black, a key Neocon Iraq War propagandist. She then asked GWU Law Professor Jonathan Turley whether Bush can pardon himself; Turley said Bush might but if he did it "would raise very serious questions and indeed I think it would trigger a Constitutional Amendment being offered to restrict this power from future Presidents."

Turley also said blanket pre-emptive pardons for everyone in his administration are "a strong possibility."

"Most of the arguments against these blanket pardons are going to the White House and saying look, this would be an abuse of executive power, it would be the use of absolute power, it would set a terrible precedent. Those are the very arguments this Pres has ignored for the past 8 years. And many people believe these would be consistent with his view of the Presidency. And in some ways he may be emboldened by not having anything to lose. He could pardon posthumously Saddam Hussein and his numbers wouldn't statistically go down. So there is a concern about that. It would set a very very bad precedent because a President could effectively have the most felonious administration and then give a general pardon to everyone who helped him with his crimes."