Did Trump commit a crime by dangling Jan. 6 pardons? Former prosecutor says ‘potentially’
Former president Donald Trump may have committed the crime of obstruction of justice on Saturday when he dangled pardons for Jan. 6 insurrectionists, according to one former federal prosecutor.
Asked whether Trump's statement "could come back to bite him legally," MSNBC analyst Barbara McQuade responded, "I think it could."
“You may recall that when Robert Mueller wrote his report, the one on obstruction of justice that did say that there was evidence of obstruction of justice, some of the things that were cited there were the dangling of pardons to people like Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn, suggesting that by offering a pardon, he (Trump) was influencing their cooperation with the government," McQuade said.
"So people who've already been charged who might otherwise have an incentive to cooperate with the government, if they know that Trump is promising them a pardon, might refrain from doing so," she added. "It could also be that anyone inclined to commit an attack like the one on Jan. 6 in the future would feel empowered by Trump's words, and so I think for those reasons, I think they could be seen as having some potential criminal exposure. I think you'd need to see a little bit more there, but it's a dangerous place to be going down the road to promise pardons for people who are enemies of our country."
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