That has been taken to cover federal crimes, but not state ones — like the ones brought by the district attorney of Fulton County, Fani Willis.
Pardons for state crimes usually reside within the purview of the highest executive authority in the state — the governor.
Mr. Kemp opposed President Trump’s efforts in 2020 to overturn President Biden’s win in Georgia, and the president-elect backed his opponent two years later.
Even if Mr. Kemp was moved to pardon Trump with respect to Ms. Willis’s prosecution, Georgia law ties his hands.
There could be another path beside the pardon for Mr. Kemp to derail Ms. Willis’s possible pursuit of a sitting president.
The Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel reckons that there is a “categorical” prohibition on prosecuting a sitting president.
Ms. Willis is under no such restriction, largely because the vulnerability of a sitting president to state prosecution has never arisen — until now. »