Former Attorney General Eric Holder said Friday that a pardon issued by President Donald Trump this week will have no impact on the Russia investigation.
Holder spoke at a "Politics and Eggs" event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College Friday morning about several topics. Much of his speech, however, touched on Trump.
Trump announced Thursday he would pardon conservative commentator and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who was sentenced in 2014 to five years probation, eight months in a halfway house, and a $30,000 fine for campaign law violations. Some saw the move as a message to special counsel Robert Mueller, who is leading the Russia investigation, because the crime he was convicted of — making an illegal campaign contribution — is similar to the one that Trump's lawyer Michael Cohen is being probed for.
"If you use all the typical metrics we use in the Justice Department … very few of these people would be considered good candidates for pardons," Holder said, alluding to the D'Souza pardon and also a potential pardon and commutation for Martha Stewart and Rod Blagojevich.
"It won't ultimately thwart the Mueller investigation."
The Washington Times reported on Holder's remarks.
WMUR posted a full video of Holder's speech, in which he also criticized Trump for his continued berating of the Department of Justice over the Russia probe.
"I think our democracy is under attack," Holder said. "We can look at the way in which I think the rule of law is under attack with regard to the Russia investigation and the way in which the president is interacting with the Justice Department, the FBI."
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