One of the unusual problems faced by prosecutors in the various investigations involving President Trump’s associates is his pardon power. If one of his associates are willing to take the hit of being found guilty of various crimes, they can hope that he’ll pardon them for their incidentally illegal services, and they can rise from the dead to serve him again.
At least, that’s true of federal prosecutions, but not true of state prosecutions, but most of these are federal prosecutions.
But as I was reading about Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, it struck me that the Feds have their own big cannon in this war – the use of immunity. This has been granted to Weisselberg. By promising a witness that he or she shan’t be visiting a prison for their misdeeds, they’ve basically rendered the Trump cannon impotent.
It must be a fascinating exercise in deciding when to use this weapon. After all, you are immunizing a probable criminal from the usual consequences of his or her illegal activities, and that has to hurt. But the key here is that the most senior person responsible for the illegal activities is the big target – not just for the sake of the pride of the prosecutors, but for the very practical reason that, if they are not caught and punished, they’ll just do it again. It’s part of their temperament, after all, because If they didn’t get caught last time, why should they this time? So let’s go off and reoffend again, collect the goods, and, well, hurt society again.
Usually immunity is used just to tempt a confession and more information out of someone already hip deep in the muck, but not so often used to immunize them from a Presidential pardon. Normally, potential criminals are more likely to have a turncoat assassinated; to have a crime pardoned is substantially different.
Maybe in the great scheme of things doesn’t mean much, but I find it interesting and anticipate it may influence the course of future events in ways not analogous to a big Mob investigation and eventual trial.
