Some whack job conservatives feel really bad for the four former members of Team Trump who have been indicted and are increasingly calling on the Don to issue presidential pardons to Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates. Politico writes:
“I think he should be pardoning anybody who’s been indicted and make it clear that anybody else who gets indicted would be pardoned immediately,” said Frederick Fleitz, a former CIA analyst and senior vice president at the conservative Center for Security Policy. […]
“It’s kind of cruel what’s going on right now and the president should put these defendants out of their misery,” said Larry Klayman, a conservative legal activist. “I think he should pardon everybody — and pardon himself.”
Good god, what planet are these guys living on? Team Trump at least tried—and perhaps may have succeeded—in selling out our country to a hostile foreign government. And now they’re the victims?
“[H]ow long will the leftist witch hunt against @RealDonaldTrump continue,” the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., tweeted hours after the indictment’s release.
As long as it takes to find out whether our government is being led by an agent of a foreign power, Jr.
Presidential pardons, however, only cover federal crimes. Some of the indicted, including Flynn, have legal considerations at the state level too. But that hasn’t kept Flynn’s brother from pressuring Trump.
“About time you pardoned General Flynn who has taken the biggest fall for all of you given the illegitimacy of this confessed crime in the wake of all this corruption,” Flynn’s brother, Joseph Flynn, wrote in a mid-December tweet. “Pardon Flynn NOW!” he added in a later message.
Of course, if we know anything about Trump, the fact that Flynn is cooperating with the investigators probably immediately nixed him from Trump’s pardon list.
There have been reports in the past that Trump was considering pardons, but his lawyers have denied that. Of course, they also denied last year that he was considering firing Robert Mueller, right around the time that credible reports now strongly suggest Trump was in fact considering doing just that.