Pascrell Again Sounds Alarm on Trump Pardon Abuse

PATERSON, NJ – Today, U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) reacted to the announcement by Donald Trump that he would commute the sentence of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is currently in prison for overwhelming public corruption, and pardon junk bond king Michael Milken, the face of the 1980s finance scandals.

“The pardoning of these disgraced figures should be treated as another national scandal by a lawless executive,” said Rep. Pascrell, who has been a leading congressional critic of Trump’s abuse of pardons. “In office Trump has used pardons almost exclusively to shield unrepentant felons, racists, and corrupt scoundrels like Blagojevich and now Milken, one of the most prolific financial criminals in U.S. history. The presidential pardon is sacred under the Constitution and perhaps represents Trump’s most dangerous abuse of power precisely because the pardon power is unfettered and cannot be reviewed by Congress or the courts. Following Senate Republicans’ sham impeachment trial and decision to hold Trump immune from any sanctions for his crimes, outrageous abuses like these will accelerate and worsen.”

In June 2018, Pascrell and U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA-33) co-authored an op-ed on the history of the pardon power and the danger represented by Trump’s abuses of it which appeared in USA Today. In the 115th Congress, Reps. Pascrell and Lieu offered H.Res. 928, which would have directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to provide to the House of Representatives any documents, recordings, memos, records, or other communications relating to any pardon Donald Trump has issued or has considered issuing, including those potentially involving Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, George Papadopoulos, and anyone else including Trump’s family and himself. Resolutions of Inquiry are one of the methods used by the House to obtain information from the executive branch. The then-Republican-controlled House Judiciary Committee buried the resolution on a party-line vote.

Rep. Pascrell has been one of Congress’s most vocal voices calling for greater oversight of Donald Trump and of his use of the pardon power, publishing another op-ed on the subject. Rep. Pascrell has also introduced two Resolutions of Inquiry seeking information on Trump’s personal and business tax returns and other financial information that has remained hidden from public scrutiny.

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