A Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to give President Donald Trump even broader authority to issue pardons — which could have a dramatic impact on the Russia investigation.

 

Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) has filed a 44-page amicus brief in the Gamble v. United States case that would consider whether to end a 150-year-old exception to the Fifth Amendment’s double jeopardy clause, reported The Atlantic.

 

The dual-sovereignty doctrine allows state and federal courts to prosecute the same person for the same criminal offense — which may be the only thing standing in the way of Trump pardoning Paul Manafort and other associates in the special counsel probe.

 

Hatch filed the brief Sept. 11, arguing that the exception should be overturned.

 

“The extensive federalization of criminal law has rendered ineffective the federalist underpinnings of the dual sovereignty doctrine,” Hatch argues. “And its persistence impairs full realization of the Double Jeopardy Clause’s liberty protections.”

 

The U.S. Constitution grants presidents broad authority to pardon federal, but not state, crimes.