President Donald Trump’s expanding use of presidential pardons is eroding morale inside the Justice Department, according to more than a dozen current and former federal prosecutors who spoke to The Washington Post. By granting clemency to high-profile figures ranging from disgraced ex–Rep. George Santos to reality TV stars, Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, and hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants, Trump has undone years of investigative and trial work, prosecutors said, leaving many questioning whether accountability still matters. Career officials described the pardons as a gut punch that nullifies jury verdicts, vacates restitution for victims, and wipes away painstakingly built cases, including complex financial prosecutions. Even some Trump supporters inside law enforcement said they were baffled by certain pardons, arguing that they appeared to be based on misleading lobbying rather than the facts of the cases.
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