Watergate prosecutor exposes Trump's pardons as a 'widespread culture of corruption'
President Donald Trump's final days are bringing with it speculation that he could pardon dozens of top aides and allies that aren't even known to have committed crimes.
Speaking to CNN's Erin Burnet Wednesday, former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman explained that such pardons are indicative of a four-year-long "widespread culture of corruption."
Akerman said that he's never seen anything like it before in the history of presidential pardons.
"I mean, you've seen at the end of the presidential term or the term of office that presidents will give a number of pardons, but they're usually given at the recommendation of the pardon office and the Department of Justice because people have led exemplary lives, there was some kind of injustice in their conviction, or there's some extenuating circumstance," he explained.
He explained that the type of people Trump is pardoning, like Roger Stone, who never served a day in prison but was convicted for covering for Trump in the Russia investigation.
"That is not the purpose of the pardon power," Akerman said. "And that's the way he's using it. He pardoned Michael Flynn, who was convicted for lying about his conversations with the Russian ambassador on behalf of Donald Trump. And he's looking to pardon his campaign manager, Paul Manafort, who was involved in providing details to a Russian agent during the 2016 campaign. I mean, what we're witnessing is a pretty widespread pattern of corruption using this pardon power."
In previous interviews, former FBI deputy Frank Figliuzzi explained that some of these pardons could actually fall under an obstruction of justice and could be nulified.
"I'm now seeing a presidential pardon is perhaps the most lawful way to obstruct justice that we have in our system because that's what these pardons will inevitably become, an obstruction of justice by the president to protect his own skin," said Figliuzzi. "And now, we see some sense, if there's any way to make sense out of the craziness that is Rudy Giuliani, we see him acting out on the president's behalf, largely likely because he needs to, if he is to have any hope of getting a pardon. So, he's acting in his own self-interest, not out of some sense of loyalty to the president, and he's going to beg and plead for some salvation."
Former FBI agent Asha Rangappa agreed, explaining that the presidential pardon is a very serious power where a president can essentially "play God" and save someone's life.
"This is the reason why you have the Office of the Pardon Attorney, because it provides, at least, a clearinghouse to go through all of these requests, the hundreds and thousands of requests, and find the ones that are most compelling, ones where there might be a miscarriage of justice, where the law's too harsh, or as Nick said, where someone has really rehabilitated themselves and to provide those for review," she said. "When they're going directly to the White House for these, what it means is that the best-connected people are the ones that are going to end up on that spreadsheet."
See the full segment in the video below: