We knew that this was coming. Even Bill Barr has admitted that this is a crime in progress.
Even Bill Barr (in His Confirmation Hearing) Agreed that Trump Just Committed a Crimehttps://t.co/H1QMUk1sTo
— emptywheel (@emptywheel) November 25, 2020
From Marcy's piece (which she wrote awfully damned fast):
But on three different occasions during his confirmation hearing, Barr made some kind of statement that said floating pardons for false testimony would be a crime.But it's only a crime if it is prosecuted.
Thanks to records made available by Ric Grenell and Sidney Powell, we know that Trump was personally involved with Mike Flynn’s negotiations with Russia about the UN statement on Israel. We also know that within two days after Flynn intervened to undermine Obama’s sanctions, Trump knew of Flynn’s conversation with Sergey Kislyak.
Flynn lied to cover that up with the FBI, and lied about his knowledge of Trump’s involvement with Mueller.
According to Bill Barr’s own testimony to Congress then, Trump’s pardon of Mike Flynn is obstruction of justice.
Biden has strongly indicated that his administration will not go after Trump. I hope Joe's fibbing about that, because permitting Trump to get away with these outrages will give a green light to any future Republican malefactors. (It would be politically wise for Joe to play the "Kindly Grampa" role while his AG functions as The Wrath of God.)
Question: Can Trump pardon himself for giving an illegal pardon? If so, American politics truly has entered the realm of high surrealism.
For a fuller explanation of why we cannot let bygones be bygones, see the video embedded below. A must-watch.
4 comments:
President Elect Biden's pick for AG will be so very important.
I believe what P.E. Biden indicated was that he will stay out of it -- the way most Presidents have done -- and let career prosecutors do their jobs. Refreshing!
Off topic:
Happy Thanksgiving!
@Anonymous--Yep, you're right. And Biden has said that he will NOT PARDON Trump--or anyone from Trump's nest of vipers.
A President is supposed to stay out of the way of the DOJ, not take control of it. Trump has done the latter, and if we insist that Biden do that too, then how are we any different from Trump?
There is no question that Biden's AG will go after Trump, but it cannot be Biden that does that. And let's not forget about the charges that the SDNY have under wraps, waiting for Trump to leave the WH.
So, why right now did Trump choose to pardon Flynn? That’s something I would have expected on his last day in office? Is Trump looking to do something with Flynn in the near term? I have no idea what, but maybe appoint him to some position at the Pentagon or within the IC?
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