Breitbart News’ senior editor-at-large Joel B. Pollak said Wednesday that Donald Trump could be elected president from jail, take the oath of office, pardon himself, and leave.
Pollak discussed that bizarre, but theoretically possible, scenario with Breitbart News Daily host Mike Slater on SiriusXM Patriot 125 on Wednesday morning (available via podcast, below).
Slater asked Pollak whether he thought the “fever dream” of the left, which hopes to see Trump detained before his trial, could come true. Pollak, citing journalist Julie Kelly, said that it could, like other January 6 defendants. But he added that it might not prevent Trump from winning the 2024 election.
“There’s a distinct possibility that … you could see a scene where Trump is in jail, or in prison, wins the election, the Chief Justice goes to the prison, administers the oath of office, Trump pardons himself, and leaves.”
Pollak appeared on the show in the wake of Tuesday’s indictment of Trump by Special Counsel Jack Smith for four charges relating to the former president’s effort to challenge the results of the 2020 presidential election. He pointed out that the indictment depends on “mind-reading,” because it lacks evidence that Trump subjectively believed he was lying about the election being stolen. He also noted that one of the four charges, “conspiracy against rights,” carries with it a potential death penalty.
Pollak also noted that Smith had claimed, in his press statement, that Trump’s alleged lies about the election led to the January 6 riot at the Capitol, but that the Special Counsel had somehow declined to charge the former president with incitement. He mocked Smith’s claim that Trump had created “mistrust” in the election, noting that the left and the media had already sowed mistrust, through rioting, censorship, and voting rule changes. “The mistrust was everywhere; it wasn’t Trump’s doing.”
In addition, Pollak argued, if false claims of election theft were federal crimes, the Department of Justice should have prosecuted Hillary Clinton and the other participants in selling the false “Russia collusion” hoax to claim that Trump had stolen the 2016 election.
Pollak also argued further that the indictment might be unconstitutional under the Double Jeopardy Clause, because Trump had already been tried for similar crimes during his second impeachment trial in the Senate in early 2021, and he was acquitted.