So, dangling a pardon to solicit irrefutable proof of a crime by the DNC in lying about the source of the email leak and fabricating the forensics through Crowdstrike?
We should surely go after Trump and not the perpetrators of the underlying crimes! More misdirection to hide their crimes a la Biden & Ukraine, Hillary & China.
I was not suggesting justice should only be sought for Trump's suspicious actions. In fact I would have voted to boot both Clinton's and Trump.
Corruption isn't limited to one side or the other. Party line votes in both past impeachments prove the US does not yet have a working judicial process for sitting presidents. (Except perhaps from those few jurors who crossed over such as Romney.)
If someone should be pardoned, withholding the pardon for the purpose of coercion is extortion. If they should not be pardoned, offering a pardon for the purpose of a political favor is corruption.
I’m not sure you are. Using the promise of a pardon, with the implicit threat of upcoming or continuing prison time, to coerce someone into doing something politically favourable for you is extortion.
And yes, some people “should be pardoned”. I wouldn’t say a guy convicted of war crimes or a corrupt governor falls into that category though.
Except it’s not extortion bc there is no threat of action particularly of the sort where one is obligated or expected by duty or ethically, despite your dogged perception that circumstances can entitle one to a pardon.
Further, there is no muh quid pro quo threat of prison time as it predates this.
Of course it also helps that none of this even happened and is Fake News and misinformation, but again muh “extortion”.
>Upon my return, I spoke briefly with Gen. Kelly. I told him that Julian Assange would provide information about the purloined DNC emails in exchange for a pardon. No one followed up with me including Gen. Kelly and that was the last discussion I had on this subject with anyone representing Trump or in his Administration.