Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told Newsmax TV on Thursday that President Donald Trump's current round of pardons were based on "the abusive power of the Department of Justice and prosecutors all over the country."
"I'm glad that he's looking at these cases that were brought by a corrupt judiciary and a corrupt Department of Justice," DeLay, the former Republican Texas congressman who was majority leader from 2003 to 2005, told "Newsmax Now" host John Bachman.
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Trump said Thursday that he would pardon conservative commentator Dinesh D'Souza, who was sentenced in 2014 to five years of probation for federal campaign law violations.
He also told reporters he was considering pardoning Martha Stewart on her 2004 conviction for obstruction of justice and commuting the 14-year federal prison sentence of former Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
DeLay, whose 2011 conviction for allegedly conspiring to break election laws was tossed out by the Texas appellate court in 2013, dismissed concerns that Trump was signaling to those cooperating with the Russia probe that they, too, might be pardoned for any possible convictions.
D'Souza was prosecuted by former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, whom Trump fired in May 2017 — and James Comey, who was dismissed by the president as FBI director the same month, prosecuted Stewart, 76, in 2003.
In addition, Blagojevich, 61, was prosecuted by former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who oversaw the conviction of Scooter Libby, chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney.
Trump pardoned Libby last month.
"I just love it when liberals, when it comes to Trump, it's all about rule of law when they didn't care about rule of law at all," DeLay told Bachman.
"When they came after me for 18 years and tried to destroy me with all this frivolous stuff — the criminalization of politics — which was their strategy.
"I have a long list of people who have been abused by the so-called rule of law, the so-called judiciary and the Department of Justice."
DeLay, 71, also pointed to Mueller's inquiry and how Justice officials are targeting Trump.
"The American people have had it — and Trump understands that," the former congressman said. "He's coming back and he's giving justice to people who have been wronged."
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