Trump aides fret pardons will not be 'enough' after November: report

Trump advisers are privately telling Zeto editor Asawin Suebseng that they’re worried President Donald Trump’s liberal use of pardons for allies and financial contributors may not be enough to save then when Democrats nab either one or both houses in November.

They “tell me they’ve recommended to the president and other top Republicans that they should try to get creative in concocting ways to preempt lawsuits, or state and local prosecutions of Trump’s staff,” wrote Suebseng. “But even in the fevered fantasies of MAGAworld’s legal brain trusts, they know that is a tall order, at best.”

Trump is happy to use pardons as presidential tool to free allies convicted of corruption, but staff are nervous that pardons can only go so far because they do not apply to all convictions.

“After all, they say, state and local prosecutors still exist – and though mass pardons from Trump could make their jobs harder, some of those progressive prosecutors have openly signaled to the Trump administration that they will still be there, waiting for those Trump lieutenants and federal agents, once Democrats reconquer the Oval Office,” Suebseng said.

And even before prosecutions ensue, Suebseng said “a barrage of congressional investigations will likely commence, should Dems on Capitol Hill win back control of the House or Senate this year.”

Plus, “lawsuits can still occur, pardons or no pardons,” said Suebseng. “These are all reasons not only to buy new liability insurance; they’re all good reasons to lawyer up. All of this will very likely cost Trumpworld’s upper crust a lot of money, time, and resources one day soon.

Suebseng added that this is the “same kind of money” Trump and his allies have “sought to bleed from their own political enemies, as President Trump has spent the past year-plus picking targets for his Justice Department to corruptly harass, selectively investigate, and vindictively prosecute.”

“They’re not always going to be in office,” Suebseng said, quoting Illinois Governor JB Pritzker in October. “The people who serve for the president, including all the way down to ICE agents, can be held accountable when there’s a change of administration.”

“That day will come,” said Suebseng. “Team Trump knows it.”

from Alternet.org https://ift.tt/sHKn9Rb
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