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Perceiving lawfare at play, President-elect Donald Trump indicated one Democratic politician he would consider pardoning.
Monday at Mar-a-Lago, the once-and-future commander-in-chief’s first post-election press conference was chock full of newsworthy remarks only five weeks out from his return to the White House. This included acknowledging that he was willing to consider granting clemency to New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) following Hizzoner’s September indictment.
“Yeah, I would,” Trump told reporters when asked about potentially considering a pardon for Adams who faced five federal charges tied to alleged illegal contributions toward his 2021 mayoral campaign.
“I think that he was treated pretty unfairly,” added the president-elect before making clear, “Now I haven’t seen the gravity of it all, but you know, it seems like, you know, being upgraded in an airplane many years ago.”
“I know probably everybody here has been upgraded,” continued Trump with a joke about perks afforded to members of the media.
President-elect Donald Trump said he would consider pardoning New York City Mayor Eric Adams, saying Adams was treated “pretty unfairly.” https://t.co/MwMsppaLfU pic.twitter.com/7D8Nq9DOcW
— ABC News (@ABC) December 16, 2024
Having been the target of a number of legal battles that were withdrawn upon his Election Night victory, the GOP leader likened Adams’s situation with his own after the mayor had spoken out against the Biden-Harris administration’s response to the border crisis that found the Big Apple inundated with foreign nationals.
“He essentially went against what was happening with the migrants coming in. You know, he made some pretty strong statements,” said Trump.
In fact, Adams hadn’t let up on criticizing the incumbents as it was reported that, after meeting with border czar designee Tom Homan, the mayor said, “We have 500,000 children who have sponsors in this country that we can’t find. We can’t find them. We don’t know if they’re doing child labor, sex crimes, being exploited — 500,000 children.”
“There is a level of hypocrisy for people who say they want to protect everyone. I want to support innocent children and those who are victims of crimes,” said Adams. “Those who don’t understand that, it’s not up to me to try to convince them.”
As multiple investigations rocked the mayor’s administration and high-ranking officials in Gotham, Adams himself was indicted and charged with a count of “conspiracy to commit wire fraud, federal program bribery, and to receive campaign contributions by foreign nationals” in addition to one count of bribery, one count of wire fraud and two counts of solicitation of a contribution by a foreign national to which he pled not guilty.
The indictment alleged in part that he “sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him…”
Not long after the indictment, Trump had spoken kindly of Adams during the Alfred E. Smith Memorial Foundation Dinner and said, “Nine and a half months ago, I said, you know, he just said something bad about the administration. He’s gonna be indicted any moment. And guess what happened, but you’re gonna win. I think you’re gonna win.”
“I know you’re gonna win, so good luck. I don’t like what they do,” continued the GOP leader who went on to add, “I know what it’s like to be persecuted by the DOJ for speaking out against open borders. We were persecuted, Eric. I was persecuted, and so are you, Eric.”
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