Jonathan Zimmerman says Donald Trump should be given a pardon in exchange for resigning

Can President Trump pardon himself? Nobody knows. But if he resigns, we all know someone who could pardon him.

I’m talking about Mike Pence, of course, who would succeed Trump in the White House. If Trump's vice president offered him a pardon in exchange for stepping down, he might take the deal. And it would be a great deal for the American people, too.

We’d avoid what now seems like an inevitable impeachment drama, in the wake of Michael Cohen’s guilty plea about campaign finance violations that he says were at Trump’s direction. And, most of all, we’d be spared the national calamity that is Donald J. Trump.

Witness the president's praise last week of his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who was convicted of tax fraud but — unlike Cohen — refused to “break” by cooperating with prosecutors,Trump said. He also suggested that prosecutors should be barred from offering plea deals in exchange for witness testimony, which would make it almost impossible for them to do their jobs.

And even if he did violate campaign-finance laws, Trump added, “almost everybodythat runs for office” does the same. ...