President Donald Trump's allies can still be forced to give back corruptly gained money despite pardons, according to a former Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) aide.
Amanda Carpenter, a writer and editor at Protect Democracy who once served as communications director for the Texas senator, laid out the strategy on a Friday episode of Legal AF.
Speaking with host Somil Trivedi of Court Accountability Action, Carpenter acknowledged the hurdles facing anyone hoping to hold the Trump administration to account, from the Supreme Court's grant of criminal immunity to the president's pardon power.
"It has been widely reported that he is considering giving pardons to anyone within 200 feet of the Oval Office," Carpenter said. "How on earth will we get any accountability on the corruption front knowing he could wield the pardon power to give them that get out of jail free?"
Her answer, she said, lies in civil disgorgement, a legal remedy that lets the government recover profits obtained through wrongdoing without bringing criminal charges.
"We have laws on the books that allow people to get money back if those monies were gained in an ill-gotten way," Carpenter said.
She identified five categories a new Congress could pursue, including no-bid contracts, crypto profits, slush funds and settlements, lavish gifts like the plane and diamond rings Trump has received, and broader pay-for-play schemes that she said extended to the lobbying around pardons.
Carpenter argued that the people on the other end of those deals offer a way around officials who stonewall investigators.
"Members of Congress, Trump, they might defy subpoenas and the like, but on all of these deals, there are private actors on the other side," she said. "A lot of this is discoverable because the paper trail is so thick."
She pointed to Clark Construction as one example and noted that state attorneys general could also pursue cases.
"These aren't new laws," Carpenter said. "You don't have to pass a new law to do it. We see this happening all the time as a routine enforcement matter."