MSNBC’s Jen Psaki went on a 10 minute rant on Tuesday night's episode of The Briefing about President Donald Trump’s pardons where she used biased buzzwords like “abuse of power” to describe Trump’s most recent pardons.

She started her morality of pardons rant by saying this about former Virginia Culpeper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins:

I mean, there was a lot in there, including, okay, so I’m going to make it official with a bag, literally a bag of cash. That was what just happened in that clip, but so basically the sheriff in Culpeper County had been taking bribes for years, as you just saw in that coverage. In the form of both campaign donations and cash in the bag, like the one the guy referenced. And as a side-note, I mean, this is one of the stunning parts of this, he’s doing it in such a – it – this it’s so out in the open it all kind of feels like a poorly scripted budget crime movie.  

 

 

Psaki claimed it felt like a “poorly scripted budget crime movie.” The crazy thing is that in 2014, they actually made a movie about the same judge that had his sentence commutated by President Biden. The movie titled, “Kids For Cash,” documents the Pennsylvania Judge Michael Conahan who was convicted in 2011 for sending children to for-profit detention centers in exchange for cash. Psaki, of course, never had anything to say on the matter during Biden’s pardoning spree.

Psaki then went on to add:

Look, of all the powers Trump has, the pardon power, in my view, has always had one of the greatest potentials for abuse. Trump is using pardon power in a way that no one else has really done before him, rewarding his friends, legitimizing conduct he himself wants to engage in, and likely ignoring many of the people who may legitimately need a presidential pardon or commutation.

Psaki talks about how Trump is “using pardon power in a way that no one else has really done before him. This is just an absolutely outlandish claim especially coming from someone who worked as the White House Press Secretary under Joe Biden, who completely pardoned his own son Hunter Biden of several felonies.

Her “morally just” viewpoint on presidential pardons obviously only applies to Trump because the summary of her show from February, 2, 2024 declared: “Jen Psaki explains why the news of President Joe Biden pardoning his son Hunter should not distract you from the people who pose actual threats to our country's national security - like Donald Trump's top cabinet picks.”

Psaki followed up by discussing former U.S. Pardon Attorney Liz Oyer:

It used to be that the office of the U.S. Pardon Attorney was considered an apolitical job. Their job is to offer unbiased legal expertise on who the president should and should not pardon. Before Trump installed his own handpicked crony, and that guy definitely is, the job of the U.S. Pardon Attorney by this woman. Her name is Liz Oyer, and she held the job of pardon attorney from 2022 until earlier this year. That’s when she says Donald Trump fired her over her refusal to help Trump-connected celebrity, Mel Gibson, get his right to carry a gun back, and since then Liz Oyer has been raising the alarm about abuses of power at Trump’s DOJ.

Claiming that Liz Oyer was fired because she failed to help Trump get Mel Gibson’s right to carry back is extremely ironic coming from the pardon attorney who allowed Joe Biden to pardon his son of felony gun charges, or in other words, the exact same crime.

Psaki also used to work for President Barack Obama, who famously pardoned Puerto Rican nationalist terrorist Oscar Lopez Rivera. As spokesperson for Obama’s State Department, Psaki blasted Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro for offering to trade him for a Venezuelan dissident, but now seems to have conveniently forgotten about him.

To view transcript. Click "expand" below.

MSNBC: The Briefing With Jen Psaki

May, 27th, 2025

9:02:35 PM ET

 

JEN PSAKI: I mean, there was a lot in there, including, okay, so I’m going to make it official with a bag, literally a bag of cash. That was what just happened in that clip, but so basically the sheriff in Culpeper County had been taking bribes for years, as you just saw in that coverage. In the form of both campaign donations and cash in the bag, like the one the guy referenced. And as a side-note, I mean, this is one of the stunning parts of this, he’s doing it in such a – it – this it’s so out in the open it all kind of feels like a poorly scripted budget crime movie.  

(...)

9:03:39 PM EST

PSAKI: It’s also why he was convicted of those crimes and sentenced to ten years in federal prison. Ten years, but today, Culpepper County’s corrupt, bribe-taking, sheriff, that is a tongue twister. Is a free man, all thanks to Donald Trump, because the president just issued a full and unconditional pardon to former Culpepper County Sheriff Scott Jenkins.

(...)

9:11:12 PM EST

PSAKI: Look, of all the powers Trump has, the pardon power, in my view, has always had one of the greatest potentials for abuse. Trump is using pardon power in a way that no one else has really done before him, rewarding his friends, legitimizing conduct he himself wants to engage in, and likely ignoring many of the people who may legitimately need a presidential pardon or commutation.

(...)

9:12:28 PM EST

PSAKI: It used to be that the office of the U.S. Pardon Attorney was considered an apolitical job. Their job is to offer unbiased legal expertise on who the president should and should not pardon. Before Trump installed his own handpicked crony, and that guy definitely is, the job of the U.S. Pardon Attorney by this woman. Her name is Liz Oyer, and she held the job of pardon attorney from 2022 until earlier this year. That’s when she says Donald Trump fired her over her refusal to help Trump-connected celebrity, Mel Gibson, get his right to carry a gun back, and since then Liz Oyer has been raising the alarm about abuses of power at Trump’s DOJ.