Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s lead prosecutor Andrew Weissmann said during an MSNBC interview that President Trump could face charges over his pardons of Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Charles Kushner. Weissmann claims the pardons are an act of obstruction of justice.
On Wednesday, during MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” he said that President Donald Trump’s pardons of Paul Manafort and Roger Stone mean they can be forced to testify against him.
Maddow then said that “once a person has been pardoned for specific crimes, they can’t escape having to testify about anything that comes within the scope of their pardon in the future.”
Weissmann agreed, saying, “Absolutely. So you know, this is the kind of thing, when I hear this news, I put on my sort of former Brooklyn prosecutor hat of, ‘okay, what can we do?’ And there are actually two things that the next attorney general can do with respect to the president because the president has a very, very broad power to pardon, but he cannot pardon in exchange for something. In other words, there can not be a bribe or a quid pro quo.”
He continued, “The president faces criminal exposure for obstruction of the Mueller investigation. And what we’re seeing in the last few days is, basically, a confession. You know, this is such strong evidence of obstruction. He’s carrying out the dangled pardons that you referred to he is now carrying out in real-time. And one of the things you can do as a federal prosecutor is you can put Paul Manafort and Roger Stone into the grand jury and ask them questions. Obviously, you would wait until January 20 so that the president can’t interfere with this. And you can ask them questions about, what were your communications with the White House? Why did you lie for the president? A whole series of questions.”
REVENGE
That’s a stretch.
The man is obsessed and ethically challenged.
Trump is setting a dangerous precedent for how to thwart future investigations into the presidency. The next AG and Congress can take steps to prevent this from happening again. And to investigate these pardons. https://t.co/C9VkIl2Tcz
— Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) December 23, 2020
The fifth amendment issue is a non issue. Yes, those pardoned may still have a colorable fifth amendment claim but, even if they do, the government can immunize them and require them to testify in the grand jury. If they then lie they face criminal prosecution.
— Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) December 24, 2020
He wants to go after Manafort and Stone again:
He added, “Now, if Paul Manafort or Roger Stone were to assert the Fifth Amendment at that point, and they may have an argument for it, you can immunize them and force them to testify. You’ll be no worse off than you are now.”
This is Stalinesque and these people are ethically depraved. He’s going for the perjury trap. The man is despicable:
This is right but also wrong: such a witness can be given immunity and then compelled to testify. And if they lie, they can be prosecuted for it. A prior pardon cannot change that, as a pardon does not cover future crimes. In short: the 5th A issue is a red herring. https://t.co/id3jn8cu45
— Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) December 24, 2020
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