Ex-US attorney unleashes on Trump for pardoning war criminals -- and demands further investigation
Some of the men pardoned by President Donald Trump Tuesday evening were involved in a horrific act against innocent civilians in Iraq during the war.
Former President George W. Bush took the U.S. into a war in Iraq based on false intelligence, saying that the country was developing nuclear weapons. Among the people who served in the war were paid mercenaries of the Defense Contract firm owned by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' brother Erik Prince.
Blackwater, which changed its name to Academi after a slew of scandals, hired men who opened fire on hundreds of Iraqi men, women and children. In one case, one of the men was told "ceasefire" multiple times but ignored it. He refused to stop shooting people until someone pulled their weapon on him and threatened to kill him.
The case in the Washington, D.C. federal court was part of a major case in the Justice Department where prosecutors brought Iraqis to the United States to testify against the men.
The men killed 17 total people, including one mother who was trying to escape with her infant child.
MSNBC host Ali Velshi said that it's clear if someone does something for Trump then they get something back.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner was furious, specifically mentioning those he knew in the Justice Department who fought to ensure the war criminals from Academi were put in jail.
"It seems like there is no line Donald Trump won't cross," Kirschner explained. "I will say, to this old prosecutor, it feels like what he just did was like an indiscriminate drive-by on the rule of law. I mean, he pardons people who are lying to the FBI. As part of the Russia probe. He pardons Republicans who were either stealing from their donors, committing campaign finance violations or engaged in insider training."
What "galls" him the most, he said, was the war criminals because it hits home with him personally.
"The Blackwater/Academi pardons of these four Blackwater contractors who slaughtered innocent, unarmed, Iraqi men, women, and children," he continued. "That was prosecuted -- that case, three times, by my former office, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. The lead prosecuteor, a gentleman named Pat Martin is somebody I tried murder cases with. He poured his heart and soul into fighting for justice for those Iraqi victims. Ali, my office would bring the victims over from Iraq and their surviving family members of the 17 who were murdered over and over and over again for these three trials and I can tell you that those Iraqi citizens were equal parts heartened that the American criminal justice system cared about their victimization and shocked at all of the time, energy, and effort, we poured into holding those Blackwater/Academi killers accountable for what they did."
He closed by saying that it was his proudest achievement in his office while working as a U.S. attorney. He said it was important to "hold the men accountable for the way that they ravaged, murdered, victimized, those Iraqi citizens."
"Now Donald Trump has killed that justice we achieved in a very real sense," he lamented. "This is perhaps the single greatest affront to victims' rights I saw my 30 years as a prosecutor."
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