Manafort & Stone Pardons Sink Trump Presidency to Unprecedented Levels of Corruption

Statement of Common Cause President Karen Hobert Flynn

The American people expect and deserve a President who puts the well-being of the nation before his personal interests. With tonight’s pardons, Donald Trump has hit a new low. It’s clear he’ll do anything to advance a cover up.

In pardoning Roger Stone and Paul Manafort, President Trump has again shown that he is willing to cast aside our national security and national sovereignty for those willing to do his dirty work – even if it entails conspiring with hostile foreign governments interfering in U.S. elections. Both Stone and Manafort were rightfully convicted and should be held accountable.

President Trump’s reprehensible parade of pardons will never succeed in rewriting history nor his own hopelessly corrupt presidency. His desperate attempts to whitewash his disgraceful record in office will not succeed. The Trump presidency will assume a place in our nation’s history that will fall beneath even that of President Richard M. Nixon’s years in office.

In the wake of this failed and corrupt presidency, Congress must address abuses of the pardon power and hold President Trump and any future Presidents who abuse the power of the pardon accountable. Common Cause will make a concerted push for the  swift passage of the Protecting Our Democracy Act and other reforms to reinforce that no President is above the law.