A Trump Pardon Might Not Actually Do Much for Rudy Giuliani's Financial Issues

Few people have suffered more severe consequences for their loyalty to Donald Trump than Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani worked as one of the president's personal attorneys in the wake of his 2020 election defeat and spread plenty of conspiracy theories about how the election had been stolen.

Among the lies that he spread were claims he made about two election workers in Georgia, who sued him for defamation and are now collecting basically all of Giuliani's assets. Now that Giuliani is making public proclamations about how broke he is, some are wondering whether Trump could pardon Giuliani and save him from this trouble. Here's what we know.

The pardon power is one of the broadest and most expansive powers at the president's disposal, but there are certain guardrails that keep it from being limitless. Among those guardrails is the established precedent that makes it clear that the president cannot pardon people who might break future laws on behalf of the president. Giuliani might fall into that bucket, which would make pardoning him tricky.

It's possible, of course, that Trump will blow past precedent and try to pardon Giuliani anyway. Giuliani has been indicted in a federal investigation into the conspiracy to steal the 2020 election, but that indictment might fall by the wayside without any need for an indictment because Trump's Department of Justice is likely to end the entire investigation. He has also been indicted in Arizona, and the president has no authority to pardon people for crimes at the state level.

In the defamation case, though, a pardon would not apply, as Giuliani has not been criminally accused of anything. That means that, in the case that has caused Giuliani the most problems, Trump can't really do anything except give him money to help him pay the $148 million that he owes to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two election workers that he spread lies about.

The question of whether a president can pardon themselves is still an open one, as no president has ever tried to. The question would likely be adjudicated by the Supreme Court, which would make a final determination on whether a self-pardon was possible.

In Trump's case, though, a self-pardon will most likely not be necessary. He has been indicted in several federal cases, but pardons require a conviction, and he was not convicted in any of them.

Instead, the cases are likely to be brought to a close by Trump's Department of Justice, meaning that he won't need to worry about whether or not he should pardon himself. He has not been found guilty of anything, at least not at the federal level.

He was found guilty in a campaign finance case in the state of New York, but the pardon power does not extend to state-level cases, so even if he wanted to, he could not pardon himself for those crimes. For now, it doesn't seem like Trump will need to pardon himself.