GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - President Trump's statement that he has the "absolute right" to pardon himself for any crimes he has committed is a sign he's upping the constitutional stakes in his showdown with Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Trump campaign ties to Russia.
The issue got 13 ON YOUR SIDE thinking, what about Michigan's governor? What power does Rick Snyder, or any Michigan governor, have to pardon themselves if they've committed a crime?
So we set out to Verify: Can Governor Rick Snyder pardon himself?
To be clear, the governor is not under any known investigation, and he has not been charged with or convicted of a crime, but if the issue were to ever come up, Curt Benson has our answer.
He's a distinguished professor emeritus at Cooley Law School and an attorney with CMDA Law.
“It's really hard to walk through that scenario in your mind,” Benson said. “Frankly the ridiculousness of a governor filling out the form, writing his work history, explaining why he’s no longer a threat to the community."
But let’s give it a go. Michigan law says anyone who wants a pardon must apply to the parole board, and this scenario goes in one big circle.
“They conduct an investigation, interview the victims of the crime, etc., etc., then they come up with this recommendation,” Benson said.
The recommendation goes back to, you guessed it, the governor.
“He’s free to disregard the recommendation and grant the pardon anyway,” he said.
Even if it’s for himself.
“But he’s not free to ignore the process," Benson said. "He has to go through the process.”
It’s something that’s never happened before, and the odds of it ever happening are slim.
“The governor would actually have to be convicted of the crime, and it’s hard for me to see a governor being convicted before getting impeached,” Benson said.
That’s the one instance neither the governor nor the president has pardoning power over.
“He can't pardon himself out of an impeachment,” he said.
But at the end of the day, we can Verify, yes. Governor Rick Snyder can in fact pardon himself.
You might be wondering why we can give a solid answer when this is such a heated debate across the nation.
Well it all boils down to what the state and national constitutions say. The Michigan constitution is more clear when it states the governor has to follow rules the legislature makes, referring to the application process.
But this limitation does not exist at the federal level.
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