And who cares if pardons don't "exist" anymore? Presidents can still give them and jails will still let people out who get them. They can apply the rules how ever they like. Selective application of rules has been the norm for some time now.
Notoriety still provides some protection and the illusion of things being consistent is still important. More likely if they want to go that far, they will look for something else unrelated to charge him with, like wire fraud or something.
That could be deterred by a threat to leak more, but then that becomes a dangerous game for both sides.
