Former Attorney General Eric Holder weighed in on if President Biden or the 2024 presidential winner should potentially pardon former President Donald Trump if he is convicted of federal charges.
“I think I’d I tell the president, the next attorney general, to let the system do its work. Try the cases, see what the results are. And then treat that convicted president, or anybody else who was convicted, as any other person,” Holder, who served as AG under the Obama administration, said Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”
Former President Donald Trump was indicted on federal charges last month related to alleged willful retention of national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and false statements. Trump pleaded not guilty and dismissed the charges as a “witch hunt.” Trump also pleaded not guilty to state charges in New York in April over accusations of falsifying business records related to hush-money payments made during the 2016 election season.
“Pardons generally are for people who express remorse and then who have done things that shows that they have turned their lives around,” Holder continued.
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“If those kinds of determinations can be made with regard to the former president, or anybody else who was convicted, yeah, I would support that. In the absence of something like that, I don’t think that would be a wise thing to do,” he concluded.
Trump, the GOP front-runner for the 2024 election, and Republican allies have slammed the bevy of charges as the latest “witch hunt” leveled against him.
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“The ridiculous and baseless indictment of me by the Biden administration’s weaponized ‘Department of Injustice’ will go down as among the most horrific abuses of power in the history of our country,” Trump said last month at the Georgia Republican Convention. “This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice.”
“They’ve launched one witch hunt after another to try and stop our movement,” he added. “They’re not coming after me, they’re coming after you.”
Other Republican candidates who have thrown their hats into the 2024 presidential ring have recently signaled they would likely pardon Trump if he is in fact convicted, and if they win the White House, including Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and Larry Elder. Other GOP candidates have openly said they would likely not pardon Trump if they are elected, including Chris Christie, Will Hurd and Asa Hutchinson.
In May, Biden laughed off a question from Fox News’ Peter Doocy regarding whether he would potentially pardon the former president.
