ABSTRACT
A little over four decades after Frost’s interviews with Nixon, on the lawn outside the White House, President Donald Trump fielded questions from reporters about the Mueller Report, which documented “sweeping and systematic” Russian interference in the 2016 election designed to sow discord and help Trump get elected. The Committee of Detail altered the Virginia Plan’s wording to read “he shall take care that the laws of the United States be duly and faithfully executed,” and the Committee of Style gave the clause its final tweak by dropping “duly and.” The only place in which the framers intentionally granted the president the ancient royal prerogative of setting aside the law was in Article II, section 2, which gave the president the power “to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment”.
