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2020 US election - The fat lady is warming up in the wings
RE: 2020 US election - The fat lady is warming up in the wings
And the answer is a qualified yes. The following comes from The Washington Post (here; if you've used up your free reads at the Post this month, Google Cache is your friend):
Quote:A person may refuse to testify, even when subpoenaed, on the grounds that the testimony may expose him to criminal liability. But if the prospect of criminal liability disappears — whether because he has been granted adequate immunity by prosecutors, or because he has accepted a presidential pardon — then the privilege against self-incrimination also disappears. “If the witness has already received a pardon, he cannot longer set up his privilege, since he stands with respect to such offence as if it had never been committed.” Brown v. Walker (1895); see also, e.g., Nixon v. Sampson (D.D.C. 1975) (yes, that Nixon). (Remember that, as with President Richard Nixon, a pardon can preclude future criminal prosecutions, and not just erase past ones.)
There's more than that, including the option to refuse a pardon to preserve one's fifth amendment rights, but the article is surprisingly short and succinct. Worth a read.

And you can be sure that while prosecutors are thoroughly aware of this, it may have escaped Trump entirely.
-- Bob

I have been Roland, Beowulf, Achilles, Gilgamesh, Clark Kent, Mary Sue, DJ Croft, Skysaber.  I have been 
called a hundred names and will be called a thousand more before the sun grows dim and cold....


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RE: 2020 US election - The fat lady is warming up in the wings - by Bob Schroeck - 12-24-2020, 08:55 AM

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