Trump's 'drunken buffoonery' on pardons conceals a potential quid pro quo — and federal crimes: Ex-prosecutor

On CNN Thursday, former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman suggested that outgoing President Donald Trump's eleventh-hour pardons of former officials convicted in the Mueller investigation — despite the lack of constitutional limits on the pardon power — could run afoul of federal bribery laws.

"I know you were surprised by this. You called this a 'frontal assault on the criminal justice system,'" said anchor Bianna Golodryga. "Why is this such an affront?"

"Yeah, those are broad words, but Bianna, this goes so much farther than simply cleaning up the business or following through on the Blackwater probe," said Litman. "These are the hallmark cases that the Department of Justice stakes its reputation on and years and years of work, and they're wiped out in a fell swoop. There's a feeling of a drunken buffoonery on Trump's part, but it's much more grave and serious on its impact overall in what the Department of Justice's work is supposed to be."

"In notes from a former conversation with Rick Gates, agents recounted the following," said Golodryga. "'Manafort told Gates it was stupid to plead, and he would get a better deal down the road. Manafort said he had been in touch with Dowd' — the attorney — 'and repeated they should 'sit tight' and 'we'll be taken care of.'' So does that statement potentially impact the legality of this pardon, Harry?"

"Yeah, it certainly does," said Litman. "By the way, can you imagine? We saw both Manafort and Flynn do these bizarre turns where they were acting like jokers in front of the court, but they were making what turns out to have been smart, cynical bets that Trump would come through. If it was a quid pro quo, it's absolutely a crime, it's a bribe. But you have to ask yourself, how will we find out? There's now a kind of hermetically sealed conspiracy of silence, and the Department of Justice has to think long and hard before it tries to open up that circle and prosecute people."

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