The speculation has been that he is being charged with a state crime of falsifying documents. Usually this is just a misdemeanor and the statue of limitations has long since expired, however if combined with violating federal election laws then it becomes state felony.

The question asked is: can the President pardon Trump for the federal part of the crime, thus reducing the charge to a misdemeanor. The answer is “No”, because he has not been convicted in federal court, there is nothing to pardon him of.

However it does raise the question: Is it proper to convict someone of a state crime based on “criminality” where the criminality is a federal crime that they have not been convicted of in federal court? It seems unlikely.

In any case, I believe all of this is just media speculation and presumably there will be more clear-cut charges in the real indictment.