Tag: Preet Bharara

Maria Butina, an accused Russian spy who nuzzled up to the National Rifle Association before the 2016 election, has begun cooperating with federal prosecutors after agreeing to a plea deal in recent days, according to a source familiar with the…

told nationally-syndicated radio talk show host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday that Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York) and his "political operation" was behind the leaking of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford "from the very beginning." HUGH HEWITT, RADIO HOST: Is there any doubt in your mind, Senator Cotton, that this was planned long before it was unveiled? SEN. TOM COTTON (R-ARKANSAS): Hugh, I believe the Schumer political operation was behind this from the very beginning. We learned last week that a woman named Monica McLean was Ms. Ford’s roommate, and she was one of the so-called beach friends who encouraged Ms. Ford to go to Dianne Feinstein and the partisan Democrats on the Judiciary Committee. Well, it just turns out, it just so happens that Monica McLean worked for a Preet Bharara, the former U.S. Attorney in Manhattan, now a virulent anti-Trump critic on television and former counsel to Chuck Schumer. Do you agree with me that this lasts, that this left a mark on American politics? TC: Yes, Hugh, I think most Americans, Republicans, but as well as independents and some sensible Democrats in places like Arkansas are appalled by the left wing mobs that Chuck Schumer and the Senate Democrats whipped up over the last three weeks. I traveled to New Jersey last week, Hugh, to campaign for my good friend, Jay Webber, a Republican nominee for Congress in Northern New Jersey, in a seat Rodney Frelinghuysen is retiring from. So what the Senate Democrats have awoken across the country in Senate races, now the House Democrats are bringing into their own races by threatening to investigate and impeach a fine man and someone who will be a stellar justice, and I think there’s going to be a consequence for those Democrats in four weeks from today in the polls. But remember, Hugh, voting has already started in a lot of places, and our people are starting to go out and vote to show their revulsion at the left wing mob tactics.

Washington (CNN)Former US Attorney Preet Bharara said President Donald Trump's political allies are clearly receiving a message from his presidential pardons. "I don't know if he is trying to send a message, but they are clearly getting a message," Bharara, who is a CNN legal analyst, said Sunday in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." Bharara added, "He's making it very clear he is prepared to pardon anyone for any reason without any review. It was suggested that he reviewed the case; I don't think Donald Trump did anything of the sort." The former New York federal prosecutor said that there's a specific process presidents should follow for presidential pardons "so people understand that that power is being exercised fairly and on the merits and not because of whim or spite or partisan advantage." Trump recently granted a full pardon to conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating federal campaign finance laws, and floated the idea of pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence, both of whom appeared on "The Apprentice" reality TV series. "He decides in the moment to take a political action, and that is what he did in this case," Bharara told CNN on Sunday. "I think he is going to keep doing it." A Justice Department spokesman told CNN last week that Trump did not run D'Souza's pardon through the department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, which was also the case for Trump's controversial pardons of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in an investigation into leaking the identity of a CIA officer, and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt in a case related to his hardline tactics with undocumented immigrants.

(CNN)Speculation surrounding President Donald Trump's motive to pardon Scooter Libby this week continues, as the special counsel probe could put some of Trump's allies in the hot seat. But if Trump did pardon Libby to send a political message, former US attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that he thought that would be "kind of abusive." "It's true that the pardon power is something that the President can exercise in any way shape or form pretty much he wants," Bharara said on CNN's "State of the Union." Libby, who was chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury in 2007 in the investigation into the leaked identity of former CIA officer Valerie Plame. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald led the case that led to Libby's conviction. Fitzgerald was tapped by then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, and the news of Libby's pardon came hours after excerpts from Comey's new memoir leaked, in which the ex-FBI director is highly critical of the President. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion. Bharara said that there a lot of other people who might have deserved a presidential pardon. "Given how many thousands of people are out there -- and my office used to process these requests on a regular basis -- how many thousands of people are out there who may have been prosecuted in a way that was over aggressive, where charges were piled on, who want to get on with their lives in a way that maybe the President can help by issuing a pardon -- none of those people have gotten a pardon," he said. "But this person who the President doesn't know, who allows him to make a political statement and also to send a message as you suggest to people who are currently in the hot seat with respect to the Mueller investigation, I find it very difficult to come to any other conclusion than he's sending a message," he continued.

Speculation surrounding President Donald Trump's motive to pardon Scooter Libby continues, as the special counsel probe could put some of Trump's allies in the hot seat. But if Trump did pardon Libby to send a political message, former US attorney…