House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler has called Donald Trump's pardon of Michael Flynn 'undeserved' and 'unprincip...
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler has called Donald Trump's pardon of Michael Flynn 'undeserved' and 'unprincipled'.
'The President's enablers have constructed an elaborate narrative in which Trump and Flynn are victims and the Constitution is subject to the whims of the president,' Nadler said in a statement.
He added: 'Americans soundly rejected this nonsense when they voted out President Trump. This pardon is undeserved, unprincipled, and one more stain on President Trump's rapidly diminishing legacy.'
But Republican John Kasich - who backed Joe Biden in the election - told CNN: 'Let's move on, it's what presidents do.'
Trump on Wednesday pardoned Former National Security Advisor Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his calls with the Russian ambassador, only to later seek to withdraw the plea.
'It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon. Congratulations to @GenFlynn and his wonderful family, I know you will now have a truly fantastic Thanksgiving!' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Have a great life General Flynn!'
House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerry Nadler, pictured, has called Donald Trump's pardon of Michael Flynn 'undeserved' and 'unprincipled'
Republican John Kasich, left - who backed Biden in the election - said: 'Let's move on'
Democrats have lambasted the pardon as undeserved and unprincipled.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called it 'an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power,' while Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said a 'pardon by Trump does not erase' the truth of Flynn's guilty plea, 'no matter how Trump and his allies try to suggest otherwise.'
Nadler called the move an 'abuse of power', arguing Trump 'granted clemency to protect an individual who might have implicated the President in criminal misconduct.'
But Trump critic and 2016 GOP hopeful Kasich, who had been probed on his thoughts on the pardon by CNN's Jim Acosta, insisted the network move on.
He said: 'Let's get on with all of this. The president has lost [the election]. Now we're having a big debate about his pardons. Every president has the ability to pardon ... There's gonna be more pardons that are gonna come. That's what presidents do.
'I mean, I remember when Bill Clinton had some pardons and people went crazy. That's the power that they have! And frankly, he's done! He's gonna leave. The transition has started, let's just move on!'
'I mean, tomorrow's Thanksgiving. Can we just, like, move on a little bit?'
'You know, I want to move on,' Kasich added. 'I want to change the subject.'
President Trump says he has pardoned Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser. Flynn is seen above with his lawyer Sidney Powell in September
Flynn's family on Wednesday issued a statement expressing their profuse gratitude to President Trump for pardoning him.
'We are forever appreciative to President Trump for giving back to Michael his freedom in undoing a hideous wrong,' Flynn's family said in a statement shared on his Twitter account.
'Let it be heard across this great country and around the world that tyranny will not topple us. Masks will not silence us. Threats will not stop us. Evil will not triumph. We are Americans,' the statement added.
Flynn's attorney, Sidney Powell, also thanked Trump and called the case against Flynn 'one of the most egregious injustices I've witnessed in American history.'
'Enough was enough. We had passed the point of proving General Flynn's innocence, all of the evidence we've gotten since I joined the case shows that, and it was high time that he be exonerated of all these charges,' Powell told Fox Business Network host Lou Dobbs.
Flynn's family issued this statement which he shared on Twitter
Separately, Powell had promised to 'release the Kraken' before midnight on Wednesday by filing a lawsuit alleging massive voter fraud in Georgia. She was released from Trump's campaign legal team last week but is continuing the fight independently.
Trump announced Flynn's pardon minutes after calling into a hearing-style event where he said he 'won' the election and called for it to be 'overturned.'
Flynn is the second Russia probe figure to get relief, after longtime Trump advisor Roger Stone, who avoided jail time after Trump granted him clemency.
Trump has long championed Flynn and used his prosecution to make the case that the FBI 'spied' on his campaign – although back in 2017 he fired Flynn after just weeks on the job after it was revealed he did not disclose his contacts with Russia's former ambassador to the U.S. to Vice President Mike Pence.
In a tweet almost three years ago – long before the Mueller probe Flynn cooperated with would wrap up and the House would impeach him, Trump wrote: 'I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!'
Flynn was on the job for just 24 days before Trump fired him.
'It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,' Trump tweeted on Wednesday
President Trump pardoned former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn on Wednesday
Trump announced the pardon Wednesday
Three years ago Trump tweeted about firing Flynn
Flynn referenced a bible verse: ''And they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee,' saith the Lord, 'to deliver thee'
Flynn tagged family members and his legal team as he cited a Bible verse that reads: 'But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible'
Even after Flynn's change of course, Judge Emmett Sullivan sought to probe the issue and brought on an outside advocate to make the case against after the government no longer sought prosecution.
He had yet to issue a final decision on the matter.
A three-judge panel ordered Judge Sullivan to dismiss the case, but that ruling got overturned on appeal to the full circuit.
Flynn's lawyer as he sought to change course, Sidney Powell, told the judge she had discussed the case with Trump.
With talk of a pardon bubbling, Schiff, the House Intelligence Chairman, on Wednesday compared Trump to a mob boss.
'Imagine what people around the world think when we have a president who's acting like an organized crime figure,' Schiff said.
'But this is who Donald Trump is. It's who he was on the way into the presidency. It will be exactly who he is on his last days of the presidency,' he told CNN.
He said Trump's conduct 'reflects so ill on our democracy, on the United States.'
Democrat Adam Schiff, the House Intelligence Chairman, compared Trump to a mob boss
'I will not do what this president does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen,' President-elect Joe Biden told NBC News
On Monday, the Trump Administration finally issued an ascertainment allowing the transition to begin, moving Trump toward lame duck status, although he continues to say the election was 'rigged' and is pursuing legal efforts.
A president's pardon authority is extensive, and there has even been talk Trump could try to pardon himself.
'With respect to Mike Flynn he may have the power to provide a pardon,' Schiff said. Trump gave clemency to longtime political advisor Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress.
Trump also took part in the traditional pardoning of the national Thanksgiving turkey on Tuesday.
President-elect Joe Biden told NBC's Lester Holt he would not push his own Justice Department to go after Trump, with some Democrats calling for probes.
Biden said: 'I will not do what this president does and use the Justice Department as my vehicle to insist that something happen.'
An official statement by White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany blamed the media and the Obama administration, and said Flynn never should have been prosecuted.
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