Donald Trump just issued a blank check to break the law in the name of Donald Trump.

He is telling his supporters, do what you have to do in support of Donald Trump.

I've got your back.

You won't have to suffer the consequences that the law carries.

It's really very chilling in this environment to think about what this could

license these folks to do in the future. Hi again, everybody. It's now five o'clock in New York. With

each pardon, Donald Trump hands out, he's sending that message loud and clear to his supporters

and his backers that your criminality will be forgiven if you voted for me

and remained loyal to me. That was former Department of Justice pardon attorney Liz Oyer,

referring to the dozens of pardons Trump dished out his former aides for their efforts to overturn

the 2020 election on his behalf. Trump essentially telling them, I've got your back.

If you, I don't know, want to try something like that again, Trump's weaponization of a

president's ultimate pardon power on further display this week as he continues to hand them

out like party favors to his political allies.

We learned just today that he quietly pardoned the husband of a

close GOP ally in Congress who pleaded guilty in 2013 to health care fraud and distributing a

misbranded drug. New York Times is reporting that among those also pardoned were, quote,

two Tennessee Republicans, the former House Speaker and a former top aide who have

been sentenced weeks earlier on public corruption charges and were scheduled to report to prison

later this month, this abuse of the pardoned power not only undermines the rule of law and the

justice system that Donald Trump ostensibly now as president sits atop.

But there's also a disturbing portrait of America being painted in the permission structure for criminality that Donald Trump has ushered in.

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