Noah Feldman, Columnist

Pardoning Giuliani Would Put Trump in Legal Jeopardy

Any lawyer would tell the president it wasn’t worth the risk to himself.

December 1, 2020 at 1:15 PM EST

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Suddenly Rudy Giuliani looks a lot like Marc Rich.
Photographer: Bloomberg

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If President Donald Trump wants to avoid federal criminal investigation once he’s out of office, here’s my free advice: Don’t pardon Rudy Giuliani.

The New York Times reports that the two men have discussed whether the president should pardon his personal lawyer. But Trump owes Giuliani money for representing him, and pardoning someone to whom you owe money could easily be construed as a criminal act.

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