Tuesday, 08 October 2024

NY Rep Calls On Governor Hochul To Pardon Trump


Governor Kathy Hochul speaks during announcement on inclusion of money for Mental Health and Public Safety Budget for fiscal year 2025 at Midtown Community Justice Center.(Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

A House Republican from upstate New York is calling on her state’s Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump after the former president was recently found guilty on all counts in a hush money trial.

Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), a New York Bar Association member, made the request in a letter on Thursday that also urged Hochul to remove Alvin Bragg as Manhattan district attorney, saying he failed to uphold the “high ethical standards” of his role.

Bragg “used a warped version of events to push the manufactured charges” against Trump, a decision that was, “At best … legally questionable, at worst it’s criminal,” Tenney wrote in the letter, which has been posted to her congressional website.

She said Bragg “neglected to prosecute other individuals” in similar cases “as his only purpose in bringing this case is to target the former President,” adding, “Targeting an individual, especially for political purposes, is unethical and unconstitutional.”

A jury returned a guilty verdict against Trump on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to allegedly cover up a tryst with adult film star Stormy Daniel as part of a “catch-and-kill” scheme to influence the 2016 election.

Trump, who denied the affair and pleaded not guilty to the charges, has vowed to appeal. Sentencing is set for July 11, just four days before Trump is expected to receive the GOP presidential nomination at the Republican convention in Milwaukee.

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Hochul has given no indication that she is interested in dealing Trump a pardon as he seeks a second term in the White House. The New York governor released a statement saying the verdict “reaffirms that no one is above the law.”

Still, there is some pressure from the Democratic Party. Rep. Dean Phillips (D-MN), who briefly challenged President Joe Biden for their party’s presidential nomination, posted to X that Hochul “should pardon him [Trump] for the good of the country.”

Three other criminal matters hang over Trump, including two led by special counsel Jack Smith and another by Georgia’s Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. It is unclear whether any of those will reach the trial stage before the 2024 election.


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