Preet Bharara: ‘Difficult to Come to Any Other Conclusion’ Trump’s ‘Sending a Message’ with Scooter Libby Pardon

RUSH EXCERPT:

BHARARA: "That is certainly the impression that is given. There is not much other explanation for out of the blue to decide to pardon scooter Libby and went outside of the process of the justice Department. It’s not clear to me that scooter Libby’s lawyers were advocating for their client to be pardoned. Even President Bush for whom scooter Libby worked decided to commute the sentence. President Trump says that he barely knows the guy. Given how many thousands of people are out there and my office used to process the requests, how many thousands of people may have been prosecuted in a way that was overaggressive where charges were piled on who want to get on with their lives in a way that maybe the president can help, none of those people have gotten a pardon. This person who the president doesn’t know who allows him to make a political statement and allows him to send a message as you suggest to people in the hot seat I find difficult to come to any other conclusion that he is sending a message. It is true that the pardon power is something that the president can exercise but it’s kind of abusive if you are using it to send a political message to people who may be in a position to testify against you."