Conservative activists are urging President Donald Trump to issue blanket pardons to everybody caught up in the Russia investigation so far, including preemptively to others not yet indicted, Politico reports.
The report comes in the wake of Friday's indictment of 13 Russia nationals by special counsel Robert Mueller, but also after a report that former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates plans to plead guilty, signaling that he, too, will cooperate with the Russia probe.
Gates was headed for a September trial along with his boss, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, but now will reportedly testify against him. Gates joins Michael Flynn and George Papadopoulos on the list of former Trump associates who have taken a plea.
"I think he should be pardoning anybody who’s been indicted and make it clear that anybody else who gets indicted would be pardoned immediately," Frederick Fleitz, senior vice president at the Center for Security Policy, told Politico.
Most congressional Republicans have preached patience, urging the president to let Mueller's probe play out. They may fear the political backlash and fallout if the president were to issue pardons at this stage, given the optics of obstruction accusations.
Conservatives outside of D.C., however, have no such worries.
"It’s kind of cruel what’s going on right now and the president should put these defendants out of their misery," legal activist Larry Klayman told Politico. “I think he should pardon everybody — and pardon himself."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.