Summary
Police say King Charles’s brother is in custody and officers are carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk - read the police statement in full

  • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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    9 hours ago

    That’s an interesting development then. Nothing stopping the king from issuing a pardon

    • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      Charles also said something like “the law must take its course” in reaction to the news, so I think he might just let it play out

      • greygore@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        On June 6, ABC News’ David Muir asked Joe Biden, “Have you ruled out a pardon for your son?” Biden responded, “Yes.”

        A week later, Biden reiterated to reporters during an international summit that “I will not pardon him,” nor commute his sentence, a lesser action that would have reduced Hunter Biden’s sentence but not lifted his conviction.

        (source)

        Not saying Charles will do an about face like Biden, nor will I say that he’s not just throwing Andrew under the bus to avoid additional fallout, but let’s see what he does if/when Andrew faces real consequences.

        • CannonFodder@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Yeah, sucks that Biden had to do that. But he clearly saw how trump was going to weaponise the doj. They were already reneging on the plea deal that Biden jr had made.

      • fiat_lux@lemmy.worldOP
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        3 hours ago

        Where are you hearing that? The charge is misconduct in public office, and while the initial arrest for it has been made based on sharing documents, the penalty itself can have a maximum of life in prison. Life in prison won’t happen, but given they’ve now searched 4 properties, I don’t think he’s getting away with just a fine either.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      I mean…

      I have to assume thr relatively precarious position the royals have is stopping him

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        9 hours ago

        It’s the continual back and forth they’ve had for the last several centuries.

        They don’t want to lose more power or come off as weak, but they also don’t want to wield too much power and be removed.

        • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
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          7 hours ago

          Yeah. I think throwing his brother under the bus would probably earn the king a whole lot of goodwill with the public, whereas pardoning him would outrage people.

          Though not much came of Jimmy Saville, but Andrew’s not dead

      • arrow74@lemmy.zip
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        6 hours ago

        No the King has that power. It is exercised today under the guidance of other officials, but the King can still use the power without reccomendation.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_prerogative_of_mercy

        It is crazy how much power the UK monarchs still have. They choose not to exercise it often, but the option remains.

        So I dove into the law a bit more and the King must follow the ministers reccomendation when asked to pardon, but there is no indication that the King is limited on his ability to use this mechanism.

        However parliment can then check it if they so choose.

        Feel free to correct me though, it’s complicated text and I may be mistaken

        • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf
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          7 hours ago

          The convention is that the royal family don’t use these powers unilaterally. There’s an unspoken agreement here that they get to keep their palaces and fancy lifestyle on the understanding that they keep out of politics and legal issues so while Charlie could in theory do something like this, he also knows that if he did, it would pretty much signal the end of the monarchy in the UK.

          • WildPalmTree@lemmy.world
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            7 hours ago

            Conventions. That’s what kept the US somewhat sane, until it didn’t. How is that going again?