Are you ready for a few presidential pardons? Well, you are very likely to see some.

Now some newspapers won’t publish this edition of the column until after the election. But that should not affect the message. Which is that Hillary will need to be pardoned. Her senior staff as well. Whether or not she is elected.

Let us look at the scenario if she is elected. There is an excellent chance she could be indicted. She and Bill. An excellent chance Congress will force the appointment of a special prosecutor.

The FBI has five open investigations going on at the moment. Investigators are beginning to put the squeeze on lil’ players who will fear they will get dumped under the bus. Under pressure one or more of them may crack. And divulge something criminal.

Even if they don’t, this mess has only grown murkier in the run-up to the election. The investigation has momentum for sure. It will make her first few years in office a nightmare. A nightmare similar to the one that overwhelmed Richard Nixon.

Enter President Obama. With a pardon, or whatever. Presidents have such powers. He will not want to see this blown open further. Because he could easily be implicated. (Remember, he lied about knowing of her email account.) And because his legacy would be slimed with it. As if it has not already been.

And being a loyal Democrat, he would not want to see her presidency besieged by all this.

That would be the reason he would give for calling off the legal dogs. His message would be that the people elected her, so let’s allow her to do her work.

Now let us look at another scenario. Suppose Mr. Trump becomes President. He has threatened to try to have Hillary measured for an orange jumpsuit. And even if he does not keep his threat, his new appointment at Justice may loose more FBI hounds.

Between special prosecutors and grand juries and leaks and indictments, President Obama could easily be implicated. As could many top guys within the Democrat machine. And all of it would tarnish his legacy.

I presume that once he leaves office he loses the immunity his executive privilege gives him. (I don’t pretend to know the laws in this regard.)

It seems to me that he will need to pardon Hillary to protect himself. And to protect his party. If Donald Trump is elected. And if Hillary is elected.

I don’t know what powers she would have as President. That is, whether she could pardon herself and her staff and cronies. Doesn’t really matter who gives the pardons. One of these presidents will have the power. And one of them will call off the dogs.

Older folks say this all reminds them of Watergate. There certainly are many similarities. And it threatens to be as significant.

In Watergate the public got to hear conversations among the conspirators. Because Nixon recorded them. And courts made the recordings public. Hearing how business was conducted in the Oval Office sickened a lot of Americans.

In this mess the public get to read emails between many of the players at the top. It is as if someone ripped off the weatherboards of a house infested with cockroaches and termites. And now Americans get to see how things are done in Washington.

The President and the Clintons want to see the weatherboard slapped back onto the house. They want to plant a sign on the lawn: Nothing to see here, folks. Move along, please.

For the good of the country, of course.

From Tom…as in Morgan.