Pence’s Fmr. Chief of Staff Buries Trump for ‘Indefensible’ Pardons: ‘One Of the Most Unseemly Parts’ of Our Administration

The chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence is sounding off about the Trump-Pence administration’s handling of pardons.

Appearing on Fox News Sunday, former Pence Chief of Staff Marc Short blasted former President Donald Trump for issuing “indefensible” pardons in the closing stages of his term.

“When it comes to pardons, candidly, one of the most unseemly parts of the end of our administration was the pardons that Donald Trump gave to cocaine traffickers, to family members, to people who were guilty of violent crimes,” Short said.

The family member Short was referencing was Charles Kushner — the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner — who had been convicted on 16 counts of fraud and false statements in 2005. Trump granted him a pardon on Dec. 23, 2020. Longtime allies Paul Manafort, Steve Bannon, and Roger Stone are just a few of the others Trump pardoned over the course of his term.

Those pardons, Short argued, were way out of bounds.

“I think if you look at actually even Donald Trump’s record when it came to pardons, it was indefensible,” Short said. “People getting $750,000 to lobbyists to try to gain a pardon.”

Fox News anchor Shannon Bream noted that late-term pardons are always inherently controversial.

“Regardless of which party the president is from, they always get a ton of heat for these pardons that they do at the end of their term,” Bream said.

But Short made clear he believes Trump’s were on a whole different level.

“Trump’s would’ve made Clinton family blush,” Short said.

Watch above via Fox News

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