President Donald Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Sunday that Trump "probably does" have the power to pardon himself but won't because it would get him immediately impeached.
In TV interviews Sunday, Giuliani also promised a court battle if special counsel Robert Mueller subpoenas Trump to testify in his investigation into Russian meddling with the 2016 election.
But Giuliani backed away from some of the boldest claims in a newly revealed letter from other Trump lawyers to Mueller _ in which they claimed that it was impossible for the president to obstruct justice because he has the power to terminate any federal investigation for any reason.
"He probably does," Giuliani said on ABC's "This Week" when asked whether Trump has the authority to pardon himself, calling it a "really interesting constitutional argument" but one that would never be put to the test.
"President Trump is not going to do that," he said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "The president of the United States pardoning himself would just be unthinkable. And it would lead to probably an immediate impeachment."
Trump's pardon power was one of the arguments raised in a letter sent to Mueller in January by two of the president's lawyers at the time, John Dowd and Jay Sekulow, and made public by The New York Times.
The letter, part of a campaign to persuade Mueller not to attempt to subpoena Trump, asserted that the president has unlimited power to direct or terminate any federal investigation, "or even exercise his power to pardon."
Giuliani said Sunday that if Mueller does issue a subpoena, a legal battle will follow.
"A president can go before a judge and say it's for purposes of harassment, it's unnecessary. We win that," he said on ABC. "You've got everything you need. What do you need us for?"
It remains possible that Trump will agree to answer questions from Mueller. Giuliani said the president wants to talk, but he and other lawyers are advising against it.
"There's got to be a high bar they have to reach in terms of convincing us that they're fair," he said.
But Giuliani shied away from the arguments of sweeping presidential privilege made in the newly revealed letter from Sekulow, who remains on the Trump legal team, and Dowd, who has since quit.
"We don't have to go there," he said.
