Subject: Re: Twenty Weeks to Topple a Republic
Let’s say a president accepts a bribe to give someone a pardon. Or something even more sinister. The president says if you arrange to murder person X, I’ll give you a pardon.

The crime isn’t the president giving a pardon. That’s not the illegality. The crime is taking a bribe or conspiracy to commit murder.

It appears you are saying that the court must waive the criminal component, as long as it’s part of an official act.

Not at all. To the contrary, I'm pretty sure that the current decision would support a criminal prosecution of the President in both those cases.

What I'm saying is that the "Seal Team 6" hypothetical doesn't even get that far, because it lacks an "official act" altogether. You don't even get to the question. There is no official act involved if the President orders an assassination of a US citizen on US soil, because that's not something the President has any legal authority to do in the first place.