A member of the US Democrats recommends pardoning Donald Trump. One reason is that he does not want to see the Republican as a martyr.
A US Democratic congressman, of all people, is calling for clemency to prevail over justice following the verdict in the hush money trial against Donald Trump. Dean Phillips, who currently sits in the US House of Representatives for the Democrats, has now called for a pardon for the former president. He addressed the request to New York Governor Kathy Hochhul. Since Trump was convicted in New York State, she is responsible for pardons.
Phillips, who represents the US state of Minnesota, justified his proposal by saying that a pardon would be “the best thing for the country”. However, he is not siding with the Republican presidential candidate. “Donald Trump is a serial liar, cheater and womanizer, six times bankrupt, an agitator and a convicted criminal who thrives on portraying himself as a victim,” Phillips wrote. But the governor should still show mercy.
He fended off critics on the X platform. “You think I'm stupid?” he wrote. “Making him a martyr because of payments to a porn star is stupid,” he explained. The election fraud charges against Trump, however, are a different matter.
Trump appealed for donations shortly after the verdict, apparently with success, as the first figures released by his campaign team show. 53 million dollars are said to have been received within a short period of time. “It's energizing his base, generating record amounts of campaign money and will likely lead to a boost in the election,” argued the Democrat, who unsuccessfully ran for president himself.
It is unlikely that the New York governor will follow the suggestion. “Today's verdict showed that no one is above the law,” she said shortly after the jury's verdict, according to the British “Guardian”. The existing law was applied. “If you commit a crime in New York State and there is evidence that you meet the requirements for arrest and trial, and a jury of peers considers all the evidence, then their verdict must stand,” she told radio station NPR.
Trump's former colleague Michael Cohen, whose testimony played a key role in the conviction, warned against putting Trump in prison. He sees the danger that Trump could reveal secrets there. Even if he is sentenced to prison, he could be elected as the official Republican candidate for the presidential election. And according to US custom, the candidate is regularly briefed on important national security issues, just like the incumbent president.
Referring to another trial involving secret documents Trump kept at his Florida residence, Cohen told MSNBC: “He's willing to give up the secrets, I've always said that, for some tuna or a book of stamps, and he'll do it because he doesn't care.”
