So, uh, what's got you wondering about this reenum? Just curious...

The president could pardon her, should he choose to do so, and I'd think he almost certainly would.

Well, during some downtime at work last week, a bunch of us got together and were just shooting the breeze. Someone suggested that we all try to talk out the great mysteries we've wondered about.

Another friend brought up the First Lady accused of treason question. Most of us were of the opinion that she would be going to prison, but others steadfastly maintained that she would find some sort of pardon.

I've been doing research on the topic, but have come up empty so far. I just thought I'd tap into MeCha's awesome power to try and answer this conundrum.

If he did pardon her, wouldn't he then get impeached or something? Especially if she did something blatantly awful.

They could impeach the president if there were enough votes, but the first lady would still be pardoned.

Practically, I feel like this would be handled in back channels (I mean, when was the last time the US actually executed someone for treason?). The President would resign in disgrace before charges would be filed and they'd move to Luxembourg or Switzerland or Yorba Linda.

First Lady isn't a, whaddayacallit, Constitutionally-provided position, is it? I think that, between the usual rich-person justice, the husband/wife privilege and the presidential-pardon process, the chances are excellent that the First Lady would totally walk.

Don't you guys have some law where wives/husbands don't have to tell on their spouses that maybe kinda applies in some way here.... oh I dunno just throwing that out there...

@dabitch: You're thinking of spousal privilege. That only applies to confidential communications between spouses. So, the First Lady giving a dossier of state secrets to the Chinese wouldn't be covered.

Unless the president was a Chinese spy.

Well, judging by one example, she would become a US Senator, Presidential candidate, and future Secretary of State....

Actually, the question of whether a President would or should choose between his job and spousal privilege is a very interesting one. Cue Oliver Stone script factory ...