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Trump’s pardon absolves Flynn of “all possible offenses” arising from Mueller’s investigation, as well as any related grand jury proceedings. The pardon uses general language, immunizing Flynn from charges based on “known facts and circumstances identified by or in any way related to the Special Adviser’s investigation.”
Some legal experts have described Trump’s decision as perhaps the broadest act of leniency since President Gerald Ford pardoned Richard Nixon in 1974.
“Pardons are usually directed against specific convictions or, at a minimum, against specific charges,” said Margy Love, former pardoning lawyer for Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, who now heads the Collateral Consequences Resource Center. “I can think of only one other pardon as broad as this, extending to conduct that has not yet been charged, and that is the one that President Ford has bestowed on Richard Nixon.
“In fact, you could say that this grace is even broader than Nixon’s grace, which was strictly framed by his time as president,” Love said. By contrast, the pardon accorded Flynn appears to extend to conduct that took place prior to Trump’s election as President, and to have nothing to do with his service to the President, before or after the election.
Even the broadly interpreted pardons by Iran-Contra granted by Bush “were limited to conduct that had taken place in the service of the presidency,” Love said.
Flynn’s forgiveness appears to rule out a variety of other potential charges that his critics had suggested he could be opened to even if he eventually got rid of the false statement charge he pleaded guilty to in December 2017. The retired general and former military chief of the Defense Intelligence Agency was still awaiting conviction on the charge when Trump granted the grant of clemency last week.
Some legal experts have said Flynn could face prosecution for factual contradictions between what he told judges in 2017 and 2018 and what he later argued in a statement submitted to the court as part of his attempt to withdraw his guilty plea. In its file, the Justice Department stressed that it viewed Trump’s pardon as including any potential “criminal contempt” Sullivan might have considered based on Flynn’s overthrow.
“As a result, the President’s pardon, which General Flynn accepted, argues this case,” wrote prosecutor Jocelyn Ballantine.
There were also questions as to whether he could face prosecution for inconsistent with statements he made in grand jury appearances, as well as his criminal liability.
on several potential charges related to his work for Turkish interests in 2016 while he was Trump’s top campaign adviser.
Flynn’s lobbying firm signed up for the work on behalf of a Netherlands-based company, but prosecutors say the Turkish governor was the real client or at least had some control over the project, who donated $ 600,000 to Flynn’s counseling practice at the height of the presidential race.
A statement which Flynn accepted as part of his guilty plea suggested that he was aware that certain facts in the Justice Department’s submissions about the work were not accurate. But Flynn later argued that he just didn’t scrutinize the filings as closely as he should and that any inaccuracies were the responsibility of his lawyers.
Some legal precedents suggest that pardons can only be valid if accepted by their recipients, but the Justice Department’s record weighs in on this as well, saying, “General Flynn has accepted the President’s pardon.”
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