That said, I don’t believe that self pardon business will work. Don’t ask me how, but it’s so inherently wrong it has to be rejected if he tries it. His best hope is to resign and hope Pence will pardon him.
Not going into “just” or “moral”, but in reference to timing.
Impeachment, charging of crimes, and pardon power are three different things.
Pardon Power:
Basically the sitting President has unchecked pardon power, however no President has ever tried to pardon themselves. Even Nixon resigned and it was Ford that pardoned him. Whether a President can actually pardon themselves has never been tested. (Personally I’m on the side that they can’t.)
The pardon power remains in full force as long as the individual is the sitting President. So in reality a pardon can be issued up to a guilty vote of impeachment by the Senate.
Charging of Crimes:
The sitting President can’t be charged with a crime while holding office. They must first be impeached and removed from office. Once no longer in office they can be charged with any crime, whether related to the cause of impeachment or not. So Trump could be impeached, removed from office, and then charged with Sedition.
The problem is he could issue himself a pardon prior to the vote by the Senate, then we are in unexplored territory and it would likely have to go to the SCOTUS for a ruling on the ability of a person to pardon themselves.
One advantage of impeachment, even if his Term expires is that the Senate can bar him from ever holding a federal public office again.
That’s why, IMHO, a faster reaction via the 25th Amendment might have been better.
It would have neutered Trumps pardon power.
With impeachment he will have almost two weeks to pardon his police cronies, his lawyers, his kids, and himself - hell he could issue a blanket pardon to any of the rioters from Wednesday (and yes there is precedent for that type of pardon - see President Carter and Vietnam Draft Dodgers.).
The 25th could have been done much more quickly than the impeachment process minimizing the amou8nt of damage that can be done.