e_Paper, Sunday, July 23, 2017

News
SUNDAY,
Local administration had also harassed
UNO over Bangabandhu portrait
• Tribune Desk
CURRENT AFFAIRS
Barguna sadar Upazila Nirbahi Officer
(UNO) Gazi Tarique Salman
was not only harassed through a
defamation case, but also by the local
administration over his printing
of an invitation card with an image
of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman drawn by a child.
On April 3, the UNO was first
served with a show cause notice
from the divisional commissioner of
Barisal, when the former was serving
as the UNO of Agailjhara upazila
in Barisal. Salman responded to the
notice, which claimed the image
had disrespected Bangabandhu.
On April 18, the then divisional
commissioner of Barisal Md Gaus
issued a letter in response to Salman’s
answer.
The letter read: “Gazi Tarek Salman
has responded to the show
cause notice and explained why
the card was printed with a picture
of the Father of the Nation without
Would Trump self-pardon end Russia investigations?
• Tribune Desk
WORLD
US President Donald Trump has insisted
he has “the complete power to pardon”
- fuelling speculation he is considering
using the device to extricate himself and
members of his team from an investigation
into collusion with Russia to interfere
in the US election.
The President made the statement
during an early-morning stream of posts
on Twitter, saying: “While all agree the US
President has the complete power to pardon,
why think of that when only crime so
far is LEAKS against us. FAKE NEWS.”
It comes amid mounting pressure on
the leader and his administration over
their alleged links with the Kremlin’s
purported attempts to influence the vote
last November in his favour.
Just yesterday, White House deputy
press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders
refused to rule out the possibility Trump
would use his pardon power to shield
himself, his family, and his administration
from federal lawsuits.
The US Constitution does not specifically
prohibit presidents from pardoning
themselves before they’re formally
accused of wrongdoing.
So if President Trump, who has not
been implicated in wrongdoing, were to
decide to grant himself a pass from any
prospective prosecution, he would not
be violating the letter of the Constitution.
But he would be stretching the
bounds of presidential power as they’ve
never been tested before – and, more
Police escort Barguna UNO Gazi Tarique Salman after he was granted bail in a case
filed for disparaging Bangabandhu on July 13, 2017
DHAKA TRIBUNE
proper respect. His answer was not
satisfactory.”
On May 24, Salman was transferred
from Agoiljhara to Barguna,
joining in June.
When asked about Salman’s
transfer, the deputy commissioner
said: “After receiving a complaint
from an important person, the divisional
commissioner instructed me
to seek an explanation from Salman.
Accordingly, I issued the notice
to which Salman responded.”
importantly, legal experts said, Trump
probably would not be able to halt Justice
Department and congressional investigations
simply by pardoning himself and any
allies known to be under scrutiny.
In fact, attempting to use pardons to
obviate the special counsel investigation
could backfire, said Walter Dellinger, who
wrote about prospective presidential
pardons as a top official in the Clinton
Justice Department in 1995.
No court in the US has ever had to
decide whether a president has the
authority to pardon himself because no
president has ever done so.
The Nixon memo
Before Trump, the only previous president
known to have contemplated a
pardon for himself was Richard Nixon as
he faced possible obstruction of justice
charges from the Watergate special
“However, I did not respond to
Salman’s reply, the divisional commissioner
did,” he added.
Then divisional commissioner
Md Gaus said: “Some party men
came to me and complained about
the card and the picture. There was
no written complaint.”
“The picture was printed on the
back page of the card instead of the
front page, which violates the rules
issued for printing Bangabandhu’s
picture. Thus Salman’s answer was
prosecutor.
Nixon asked his Justice Department
(DoJ) whether a self-pardon was legal.
Justice lawyers issued a memo opinion
in 1974 advising that it was not. The DoJ
memo said that under the age-old legal
maxim that no one can be the judge of
his own case, even the president of the
United States cannot pardon himself.
The 1974 Justice Department memo
is the first, last and only official word on a
US president’s power to pardon himself,
according to Michigan State law professor
Brian Kalt, who has been thinking and
writing about presidential self-pardons
since he was a Yale Law student in the
1990s. The issue has simply never come
before a US court, even tangentially.
Article II of the Constitution authorises
the president to “grant reprieves and
pardons for offences against the United
States, except in cases of impeachment.”
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One, on July 22, 2017 AP
marked as unsatisfactory,” he added.
Advocate Obaedullah Saju,
Awami League Barisal city unit religious
affairs secretary, filed a Tk5
crore defamation case against Salman
at the Barisal Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate’s Court on June 7.
Salman was sent to jail regarding
the case on July 12 and was released
on bail on July 13.
The portrait, drawn by a student
of class five in Barisal, was selected
through an official competition
on the occasion of Bangabandhu’s
birthday and printed on the back of
an invitation card for the local administration’s
Independence Day
official event.
Awami League has since suspended
Saju from his post as Barisal
city unit Religious Affairs secretary,
after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
expressed extreme dissatisfaction
at the mistreatment of UNO Salman
over an act that she said “should be
considered praiseworthy.” •
The story was first published on the
Bangla Tribune.
Unbearable pressure
The pardons clause explicitly says that
presidents cannot grant pardons from
“cases of impeachment.”
That clause, said former Clinton
Justice official Dellinger, could give special
counsel Mueller a mandate to continue
investigating the Trump campaign even
if the president were legally entitled prospectively
to pardon himself and everyone
else under Mueller’s scrutiny for possible
violations of federal criminal laws.
Dellinger drew an analogy to Whitewater
independent counsel Kenneth
Starr, who did not charge President Bill
Clinton with crimes but prepared a report
that served as the basis for articles of
impeachment against the president.
If Trump were to pardon himself prospectively
– and particularly if he were to
attempt to use that pardon as a rationale
to end Mueller’s investigation prematurely
– the FBI and Congress could end
up investigating whether the president’s
motives, and the motives of Justice
Department officials who implemented
his orders, were proper.
Presidential pardons do not carry
an implication of guilt. Presidents have
exonerated people who steadfastly
maintained their innocence even as they
accepted the pardon. If President Trump
were to pardon himself, he’d be conceding
nothing about his criminal liability in
the Russia investigation.
But given the questionable legality
of the maneuver and the likelihood that
probes would continue and even intensify,
it’s hard to see what a self-pardon
would accomplish for the president. •
3
JULY 23, 2017
DT
Judge who
punished UNO
owes govt
Tk93,950
in rent
• Anisur Rahman Swapan,
Barisal
NATION
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate
(CMM) Md Ali Hossain of Barisal,
who sent UNO Gazi Tarique Salman
to jail for using an image of Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
drawn by a child, has not paid the
rent for staying at Barisal Circuit
House for eight months.
Then Nezarat deputy collector
of Barisal District administration
Kalyan Chowdhury sent a letter
to CMM Ali Hossain asking him to
repay his pending dues on August
4, 2016, according to a government
document.
The document says CMM Ali
Hossain had used room number 7
of the Barisal Circuit House from
October 27, 2015, to June 28, 2016.
Although he paid Tk390 as rent
Although letters
were issued to the
judge asking that
he pay the rent, he
did not respond
positively
from October 27 to November 1,
2015, he has not paid any rent for
the remaining days.
According to government policy,
the charge for staying at the house
for between one to three days is
Tk90 per day, while it is Tk120 per
day for the next four. If the stay exceeds
seven days, the rent is Tk400
for each subsequent day. Considering
these rates, the CMM’s dues
now stand at Tk93,950.
The Dhaka Tribune made several
attempts to contact the judge,
but the phone calls remained unanswered.
Barisal district Deputy Commissioner
Gazi Md Saifuzzaman said
CMM Ali Hossain had stayed in the
room in district’s circuit house for
eight months, but paid the rent for
only five days.
“Suddenly we came to know
that he had left the Circuit House,”
the DC said, adding that the judge
did not even notify him before
leaving the Circuit House.
Although letters were issued to
the judge asking that he pay the
rent, he did not respond positively,
the Barisal DC added. •