两位希望渺茫的共和党候选人在2024年的总统竞选中在捍卫前总统唐纳德·特朗普方面，比党内其他人走得更远从他史无前例的联邦起诉中.
维维克·拉马斯瓦米和佩里·约翰逊都是企业家在人群的后面投票共和党候选人承诺如果他们当选总统，就赦免特朗普-这个承诺还没有被这个领域的其他人接受。南卡罗来纳州州长妮基·黑利已表示支持总统赦免，但尚未明确表态。
前阿肯色州州长阿萨·哈钦森周日称这样的承诺是“错误的”和“令人不快的”他附和的评论在周二的“ABC新闻直播”节目中。
特朗普周二下午在佛罗里达州被传讯，被控37项罪名，包括故意保留国防信息和阴谋妨碍司法公正。
检察官指控他在离开白宫后非法保留政府机密，并在被询问时努力避免归还。
特朗普否认有不当行为，他的律师代表他提出无罪抗辩。
在社交媒体上，他称上周对他的起诉是该国“黑暗的一天”。
拉马斯瓦米周二出现在迈阿密联邦法院外，特朗普在那里出庭。在那里，拉马斯瓦米说，他已经致函所有其他2024年共和党候选人，寻求他们也承诺赦免特朗普。
以下是各共和党候选人在这个问题上的立场，尽管许多人还没有公开解决这个问题。
总统只能赦免被判犯有联邦罪的人，不能赦免犯有州罪的人。特朗普在纽约市另外面临重罪州指控，涉及他在2016年大选前向一名成人电影女演员支付的封口费。他不服罪。
如果当选，拉马斯瓦米和约翰逊将提供赦免
生物技术公司创始人拉马斯瓦米(Ramaswamy)最初在起诉书公开发布前承诺总统赦免特朗普。周日，在美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)上，当被问及起诉书披露后他的观点是否有所改变时，拉马斯瓦米说没有，声称这些指控“高度政治化”，包括他没有指明的“遗漏”。
“我更加确信，赦免是这里的正确答案，”他说。
检察官为他们的工作进行了辩护:“这份起诉书是由佛罗里达州南区的一个大陪审团投票表决的，我请每个人都完整阅读，以了解被指控罪行的范围和严重性，”负责监督针对特朗普的联邦案件的特别顾问杰克·史密斯周五表示。
在周二的新闻发布会上，拉马斯瓦米表示，其他白宫候选人也必须公开表明立场。
他说:“我向其他每一位候选人发出挑战，要求他们切实按照自己的信念行动。”“如果你不打算…在2025年1月20日赦免特朗普总统，你有权说出原因。”
约翰逊一再呼吁赦免特朗普，甚至在特朗普面临联邦指控之前。约翰逊在社交媒体上辩称，总统乔·拜登应该发布这样的赦免令，并表示，如果当选，他将亲自为特朗普发布赦免令。
“我们必须翻过美国历史的一页，专注于结束这场债务危机、最终修建隔离墙和解决乌克兰战争等重要问题，”约翰逊上周在推特上写道。
在周二的一次电台采访中，海莉说，如果她当选，她倾向于支持特朗普的赦免，但她说现在说还为时过早。
“我倾向于赞成赦免。但是我认为现在还为时过早，因为他还没有被定罪。
哈钦森批评这是“完全错误的”
这位前州长周日在拉马斯瓦米之后出现在美国有线电视新闻网(CNN)的“国情咨文”中，抨击了总统赦免特朗普的提议。
他说:“候选人利用美国总统的赦免权来拉选票和赢得掌声是完全错误的。”“这真的破坏了我们国家的法治，我一生都在支持法治，在这种情况下，任何人坚持赦免都是对我的冒犯。”
哈钦森周日强烈同意特朗普无罪推定，有权提出自己的案件，但他称起诉书是对竞选活动的“干扰”——并一再呼吁特朗普“为了国家的利益”结束他的竞选，同时承认他不会这样做。
共和党候选人史蒂夫·拉菲(Steve Laffey)在未来赦免的问题上加入了哈钦森的行列，他周五告诉美国广播公司新闻，“够了。”
“他(特朗普)是时候离开舞台了。如果有罪，他要在监狱里呆很长一段时间，”拉菲说。
其他候选人没有明确表态
共和党初选中的一些大腕，如佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯和前副总统迈克·彭斯，没有提出类似的赦免提议，尽管他们也没有公开排除这种可能性。
“我不会和假设的人说话，”彭斯周五在新罕布什尔州对记者说，他还称特朗普退出为时过早。“在美国，在被证明有罪之前，每个人都是无辜的，我认为前总统有权为自己辩护。我们会尊重这种权利。”
德桑蒂斯批评了他所谓的联邦政府的“武器化”，对特朗普提出指控。但是他的竞选团队没有回应美国广播公司的一个问题，即如果当选，他是否会承诺赦免。
今年5月，他在一个电台节目中被特别问到，可能会对特朗普或与1月6日有关的被控人员发布赦免令。这位州长没有提到特朗普或任何具体的1月6日案件的名字，但表示他对这个想法持开放态度。
“我们将积极(发布)赦免令，”他当时表示，并辩称司法部和联邦调查局已转向追求政治目标，而非执法目标。
前新泽西州长克里斯·克里斯蒂是特朗普的盟友，后来成为批评者，在上周宣布竞选白宫的市政厅式活动中，他被问及是否可能赦免特朗普。
“在我知道他被指控和定罪之前，我无法完全回答这个问题，”克里斯蒂说，后来又补充道，“但作为一名(前)检察官，我会告诉你，如果我相信有人在他们的同行组成的陪审团面前，特别是在公共生活中的人面前，得到了全面和公平的审判，他们在持有公众信任的情况下犯下了这些罪行，我无法想象会赦免他们。”
拜登呢?
在过道的另一边，白宫新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔在周二的新闻发布会上被问及总统乔·拜登是否会考虑赦免川普。她说她不会讨论这个问题。
What GOP candidates have said about promising to pardon Trump in classified docs case
Two long shot Republican candidates in the 2024 presidential race have gone further than others in the party in defending former President Donald Trump from his unprecedented federal indictment.
Vivek Ramaswamy and Perry Johnson, both entrepreneurs and both polling in the back of the pack of GOP candidates, have promised to pardon Trump if they are elected president -- a pledge that hasn't been taken up by most of the rest of the field. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has indicated support for a potential presidential pardon but hasn't been definitive.
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Sunday called such promises "wrong" and "offensive," comments he echoed on "ABC News Live Prime" on Tuesday.
Trump, who was arraigned in Florida on Tuesday afternoon, is charged with 37 counts including willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice.
Prosecutors allege he illegally retained government secrets after he left the White House and worked to avoid returning them when asked.
Trump has denied wrongdoing and his attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
On social media, he called his indictment last week a "DARK DAY" for the country.
Ramaswamy appeared outside the federal courthouse in Miami on Tuesday where Trump made his court appearance. There Ramaswamy said that he had sent letters to every other 2024 Republican candidate, seeking to have them also promise to pardon Trump.
Below is a look at where various Republican candidates stand on the issue, though many haven’t yet publicly addressed it.
Presidents can only pardon people convicted of federal crimes, not state crimes. Trump separately faces felony state charges in New York City related to hush money he paid to an adult film actress before the 2016 election. He has pleaded not guilty.
Ramaswamy and Johnson offer pardons if elected
Ramaswamy, a biotech company founder, initially made his promise of a presidential pardon for Trump before the indictment had been publicly released. On Sunday on CNN, when pressed on whether his view had changed after the indictment was revealed, Ramaswamy said it hadn't, claiming that the allegations were "deeply politicized" and included "omissions" that he didn't specify.
"I'm even more convinced that a pardon is the right answer here," he said.
Prosecutors have defended their work: "This indictment was voted by a grand jury of citizens in the Southern District of Florida, and I invite everyone to read it in full to understand the scope and the gravity of the crimes charged," special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the federal case against Trump, said on Friday.
At his press conference on Tuesday, Ramaswamy said other White House hopefuls had to take a public stand as well.
"I challenge every one of the other candidates to actually act on their convictions," he said. "If you're not going to … pardon President Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, you deserve to say why."
Johnson has repeatedly called for Trump to be pardoned, even before Trump faced federal charges. Johnson argued on social media that President Joe Biden should issue such a pardon and said that, if elected, he would issue a pardon for Trump himself.
"We must turn the page of American history and focus on important issues like ending this debt crisis, finally building the wall, and resolving the war in Ukraine," Johnson wrote on Twitter last week.
In a radio interview on Tuesday, Haley said she was leaning toward supporting a Trump pardon if she is elected, but she said it was too early to say.
"I would be inclined in favor of a pardon. But I think it's really premature at this point when he's not even been convicted of anything," Haley said.
Hutchinson criticizes it as 'simply wrong'
The former governor, appearing on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday after Ramaswamy, slammed offers of a presidential pardon for Trump.
"It is simply wrong for a candidate to use the pardon power of the United States of the president in order to curry votes and in order to get an applause line," he said. "That really undermines the rule of law in our country that I have served my lifetime supporting, and it is offensive to me that anyone would be holding out a pardon under these circumstances."
Hutchinson vehemently agreed on Sunday that Trump carries the presumption of innocence and has a right to make his case, but he called the indictment a "distraction" from the campaign -- and has repeatedly called on Trump to end his bid "for the good of the country," while acknowledging he won't.
Republican candidate Steve Laffey has joined with Hutchinson on the issue of a prospective pardon, telling ABC News on Friday, "Enough is enough."
"It's time for him [Trump] to leave the stage. And if guilty, he goes to jail for quite a period of time," Laffey said.
Other candidates not weighing in as definitively
Some of the biggest names in the Republican primary race, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, aren't making similar pardon offers -- though they haven't publicly ruled them out either.
"I'm not going to speak to hypotheticals," Pence told reporters on Friday in New Hampshire, also calling it "premature" for Trump to drop out. "Everyone is innocent until proven guilty in America, and I think the former president has a right to make his defense. And we'll respect that right."
DeSantis has criticized what he called the "weaponization" of the federal government, in bringing charges against Trump. But his campaign did not respond to a question from ABC News about whether he would promise a pardon if elected, or not.
In May, he was specifically asked on a radio show about potentially issuing a pardon for Trump or people charged in connection with Jan. 6. The governor did not mention either Trump or any specific Jan. 6 cases by name but indicated he was open to the idea.
"We will be aggressive [in] issuing pardons," he said then, arguing that the Department of Justice and FBI had been turned to pursue political rather than law enforcement goals.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a Trump ally-turned-critic, was asked about potentially pardoning Trump during the town hall-style event where he announced his White House bid last week.
“I can't completely answer that until I know what he was charged with and convicted of,” Christie said, later adding, “But I will tell you as a [former] prosecutor, if I believe someone has gotten a full and fair trial, in front of a jury of their peers -- and especially someone in public life -- who committed those crimes when they held a public trust, I can't imagine pardoning them.”
What about Biden?
On the other side of the aisle, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked at Tuesday’s briefing if President Joe Biden would consider a pardon for Trump. She said she wouldn’t discuss the issue.
