President Donald Trump has been destroying morale among federal prosecutors by undoing years of their work with the stroke of a pen.
The 79-year-old president pardoned some of the most high-profile public corruption and white-collar defendants who were prosecuted in recent years, including some brought to justice during his first term in office, and more than a dozen experienced prosecutors told the Washington Post that Trump's clemency acts have eroded faith in the Department of Justice that their work will lead to accountability.
“It’s personally upsetting because of how much time I invested in this case — the time traveling, the late nights looking through documents and prepping for witness interviews,” said Jacob Steiner, a former Justice Department employee who prosecuted former Republican congressman George Santos. “Beyond and more important than the personal aspect, it’s really disheartening that someone who lied to the public and stole a lot of money just gets to walk free and not have to pay back his victims.”
Santos was among the controversial pardons handed out by Trump, who has claimed that he's correcting corrupt prosecutions pursued under former President Joe Biden, but the attorneys told the Post that they investigated each case diligently and fairly.
“To bring a case to trial is just an incredible effort and use of department resources,” said John Keller, who previously led the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. “There’s an intensity of experience and effort and emotion that doesn’t come at any other stage of the case. It’s the pinnacle of the practice.”
“There’s a feeling that, if a jury or judge has reached a verdict after hearing all the evidence, it’s even more of a slap in the face to have clemency handed down,” added Keller, who's seen Trump pardon several defendants he helped prosecute.
In addition to Santos, the disgraced GOP lawmaker convicted of defrauding campaign donors, Trump has pardoned reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley and Silk Road creator Ross Ulbricht, as well as his sweeping pardons of more than 1,500 Jan. 6 rioters.
“I couldn’t believe it was a complete and total pardon,” said one law enforcement official who worked on the Silk Road case.
Retired federal prosecutor V. Grady O’Malley, who described himself as a Trump supporter, told the Post that he was confounded by the pardon of New York businessman Joseph Schwartz, who pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes for his chain of nursing homes and laundering money through various accounts.
“I think the president was misled as to the reasons why [Schwartz] should be pardoned,” O’Malley said. “I can’t see anyone accepting an application and alleging that he somehow deserves to be pardoned unconditionally and completely in this case. Something had to be said to the president. Whether he was paying attention to it or not, I don’t know.”
Scwartz reportedly paid right-wing provocateurs Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl nearly $1 million to lobby Trump for a pardon, wiping away years of O'Malley's work on one of the most complicated cases of his 47-year DOJ career.
“I was stunned and angered," O'Malley said. "The $5 million in restitution was vacated. It was a strong case. I do not indict cases on a wing and a prayer.”
Last month, just weeks after Trump pardoned Schwartz, the Internal Revenue Service invited O'Malley to a ceremony to present him with an award for working on that case, but he told the Post that he declined to attend.
