‘Presidential crime spree’: Legal expert unloads on Trump's 'outrageous' scandals

President Donald Trump’s series of executive actions since returning to the White House last month – from pardons of violent insurrectionists to mass firings of federal law enforcement personnel – fits an alarming pattern of "criminality."

That’s according to former Obama White House ethics counsel Norm Eisen, who told former CNN anchor Jim Acosta on Friday that Trump’s “latest scandal” is “the kind of thing that happens in a dictatorship, not a democracy.”

“So, you had a man that said he was going to be a dictator on day one. And when people assume dictatorial powers they don’t voluntarily give them up,” Eisen said on Acosta’s Substack show, “The Jim Acosta Show.”

During an hour-long interview, Eisen flagged Trump’s pardon this week of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, which he characterized as just one example in a string of controversial moves. He also questioned why more focus hasn’t been given to the president’s pardon of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich – “What’s going on there?” he asked.

“What do you expect when you elect the first criminal president – more criminality? This is a president who we’ve seen not only pardon these 1,600 violent insurrectionists, including 140 who violently assaulted police. He then took out after law enforcement,” Eisen said before launching into the Adams case.

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“It’s the same pattern, Jim,” he added. “It’s the latest scandal of Donald Trump’s embrace and support for what can only be called an attack on the rule of law and law and order in our country. It’s outrageous.”

Eisen continued railing against Trump’s presidential blitz by adding that he “broke the law in how he fired” former internal government watchdogs and then added to the deluge of ethical concerns by removing the head of the Office of Government Ethics.

“There’s not really two sides to this presidential crime spree,” Eisen told Acosta. “We should call it CROTUS, NOT POTUS,” he quipped, referring to the acronym used for President of the United States.

“It’s scary. That’s the thing about it,” Acosta said. “It’s just scary.”

Watch the clip below or at this link.