On Thursday morning, Rep. Al Green will propose a constitutional amendment that would explicitly bar the president from granting himself a pardon.

"Nobody wants to see that," the Texas Democrat told BuzzFeed News. "Bigger than the current president, this is for all presidents. If we can't stop one, we'll stop the rest."



Green said on Wednesday evening that he doesn’t think such an amendment is needed — he thinks the Constitution doesn’t allow such a self-pardon. But he’s laying the groundwork to try to pass an amendment like this, should it become necessary.

“Our president has given signals that he is reviewing the Constitution and, in the process of reviewing it, it has been published that the review includes that possibility of his considering pardoning himself,” Green — who already has filed articles of impeachment against President Trump — said.

Trump has discussed pardon issues in the Oval Office, his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, acknowledged this past week. The president himself tweeted over the weekend that “all agree the U. S. President has the complete power to pardon.” It’s not clear whether the discussion or the president’s tweet related to any possible self-pardon consideration. But the vagueness of the explicit references to pardon power — and Trump’s general unpredictability — have raised speculation about how the president might want to use it.

“In hearing that,” Green said, “and also after hearing that constitutional scholars differ on whether the president can or cannot pardon himself, it seemed appropriate — as a matter of fact, it seemed absolutely necessary — that we take some action so as to bring clarity to this issue.”