Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner argued that President Donald Trump had issued a "calling-all-insurrectionists" recruiting tool by pardoning people who participated in a scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Over the weekend, Trump pardoned scores of people accused of backing Republican efforts to overturn his 2020 loss, including Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and others who supported the scheme to use ballots of fake electors.
Many of those people continue to face state charges despite the pardons.
Kirschner took issue with reports that Trump's pardons were "primarily symbolic."
"These pardons serve as a recruiting call for people to interfere in the upcoming elections, both the midterms and the 2028 presidential race," the former prosecutor noted on Monday. "What do these pardons signal? If you are alleged to have committed crimes designed to interfere in an American election, Trump will have your back with a presidential pardon."
"Trump might as well post a job announcement: Election interference co-conspirators wanted," he said.
After taking office earlier this year, Trump issued pardons for around 1,500 rioters who attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an effort to keep him in office.
