the case against charles kushner was prosecuted by then-u.s. attorney chris christie, the long-time trump friend and former new jersey governor. here's how christie described the crimes that charles kushner went to prison for just last year. >> i just think it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need any more justification than that? i mean, it's one of the most loathesome, disgusting crimes that i prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. i was u.s. attorney in new jersey, margaret, so we had some loathesome and disgusting crime going on there, but i just laid out the facts. any objective person who looks at the facts knows confronted with those facts, i had a moral and an ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> one of the most loathesome, disgusting crimes. feign shock with me again to the continued benefit that undeserving men, and they're a

charles kushner is jared kushner's father

and real estate tycoon, charles kushner. charles kushner is jared kushner's father. paul manafort, the president once tweeted, quote, unlike michael cohen, he refused to break, make up stories in order to get a deal. family values, if the family's last name is cor leone. evan, again, these pardons were close to the president. what can you tell us? >> list of 26 pardons and three commutations are the president's campaign associates. these are people, who were sentenced to prison for essentially trying to protect the president. that's according to special counsel robert mueller's prosecutors. in the case of paul manafort, he was sentenced to seven and a half years for bank and tax fraud and witness tampering. he's been in home confinement, since earlier this year, because of the coronavirus pandemic. and the president has now kbrantkbran granted a pardon to him saying, essentially, he was mistreated by special counsel robert mueller as part of the hoax, as what the president calls the investigation. in the case of roger stone, he lied to congress, to the republican con

charles kushner, father of jared kushner. by the way, he was put away by chris christie when he was u.s. attorney in new jersey for tax

roger stone, who was convicted of lying to congress and witness tampering and charles kushner, jared kushner's dad who was locked up for tax evasion and lying to the fec. joining me, chuck rosenberg, now an msnbc contributor. good to see you, chuck. let's start big picture. look. controversial presidential pardons are not new. marc rich comes to mind. but a harvard count has 60 of the 65 trump pardons before wednesday going to someone with either a personal or a political connection to the president. have we ever seen anything like this? >> not in this volume, chris. the harvard study is a professor named jack goldsmith who pointed out that overwhelmingly, trump pardon goes to political allies, to friends and family. you're right. we have seen troubling pardons in the past from other presidents. it's not new. what is new is the volume -- the volume of these types of pardons from this president is stunning. it's absolutely stunning. if you want to get a pardon from donald trump, it's good to either be related to him or to have supported him politically. those seem to be the two paths t

charles kushner was prosecuted for these crimes by a u.s. attorney at the time named chris christie. yes, that chris christie. something jared kushner has reportedly been holding a grudge about ever since. but tonight jared's dad gets a full pardon, which i believe is trump's first foray into pardons for his own family, in this case family by marriage, but could blood relatives be far behind? also on tonight's pardon list, roger stone. and i know you're thinking, hey, didn't trump already pardon him? no. first he got bill barr to intervene in the prosecution of roger stone to try to get stone a shorter sentence. then he commuted the prison sentence that roger stone did get. remember, he was convicted of lying to congress on the russia investigation. but, you know, when you lie to protect donald trump in the russia investigation, a commutation of your prison sentence is apparently not enough of a reward for that kind of loyalty. so in addition to bill barr intervening to try to get him a lighter sentence, and in addition to trump commuting the

also receiving a pardon, charles kushner, the father of his son in-law. former new jersey governor chris christie was the u.s. attorney that prosecuted him. >> the guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother in-law and videotapes it and sends that to his sister to keep her from testifying before a grand jury. president trump vetoed the national defense bill yesterday and is threatening to do the same to the coronavirus relief bill. >> people are hurting right now. >> house democrats will introduce an amendment to increase the amount of the bill's $600 stimulus check after the president released this message. >> increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000. leaving money on the table while congress goes home for christmas. >> quite a long shot. if it doesn't get passed, it could be that the president does not sign this. it could get kicked down the road and then congress would have to look at this again next year. >> kicking the can down the road. hopefully not. thank you. >>> as americans get set to celebrate christmas, more than 90 million people are in

28 days left in his presidency pardoning paul manafort, roger stone, and real estate developer charles kushners you know is jared kushner's father. let's discuss now with the former attorney general in new jersey and a former federal prosecutor, the perfect panel to talk about these issues with. i'm just guessing we may share some similar view points. these pardons don't have anything to do with justice. when you look at these pardons please tell me what do you see? >> laura, what i see is the injustice and the abuse of power getting deeper, literally, by the day. it was 24 hours ago you and i were on the show having a conversation about how outrageous yesterday's batch of pardons were. now we have two dozen more. i think it is particularly painful for dedicated and proud doj alums like you and ann and me to see what's going on here. now there is a pattern emerging that i think is hard to ignore and disturbing. if you look back at the mueller investigation, the four main players who refused to cooperate or lied to prosecutors, manafort, flynn, popodopolous and stone have now all been pardoned

charles kushner, i can't come up for a defense, why president trump pardoned charles kushner. we heard chris christie say it was one of the worst cases he came across when running the justice system in new jersey. you can make the point that all presidents do this. we should look at them individually. some of them look valid, some of them do not. howie: let me get griff jenkins in, on the four blackwater contractors. they were prosecuted for killing iraqi civilians. it was called a massacre. pete hegseth said they were put in an impossible position. >> well, yes. and remember the prosecution back in 2007 when this happened was at the height of a low point in u.s./iraqi relations, howie. that matters. because while the war had been going on for four years in iraq after the invasion, you had this situation where the blackwater guards are doing what they believed was acting in their best interest but yet civilians were killed. i think that military advisors certainly have a few different opinions. one of which is that they're operating outside of their rules of engagement that ou

charles kushner is jared kushner's fathere president's campaign associates. these were people who were sentenced to prison essentially trying to protect the president. that's according to special council robert mueller's prosecutors. in the case of manafort, he was sentenced for 7.5 years with bank and fax fraud, he tax frau. the president granted a pardon to him saying he was mistreated. in the case of roger stone, he lied to congress, to the republican congressional committee that was investigating russ russia's involvement with the 2016 election. one of the things the judge said in his sentencing was that he tried to protect the president and now he's got a pardon as a result of what he did for the president. charles kushne convicted in 2005. chris christie was the attorney at the time. he's the father of jared kushner, we have been told by white house officials that jared kushner did not play a role in this pardon but obviously this is something that's on everyone's mind for some time to come. another name that stood out margaret hunter who's the wife of

also on this list is jared kushner's father, charles kushner. let's tick through these. you have paul manafort and roger stone, indicted by special counsel mueller, went to trial and convicted by juries of multiple crimes. investigator says manafort broke the cooperation agreement by lying to them. roger stone has never shown remorse. both men are being rewarded for their loyalty. the president says he thinks his advisers retreated unfairly. it's worth noting the mueller report detailed in the obstruction of justice part, how trump's democrat dangled pardons as a way to protect the president, and now we're seeing the president's plan play out with the president. charles kushner, the father of president trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, he was convicted of illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion and witness tampering and served a 24 month sentence. jared did not advocate for his father to get the pardon because it was the unspoken word between him and trump that this would happen. this is what sources have told me and my colleague. overall, the story emerging from th

days left in his presidency, pardoning paul manafort, roger stone, and real estate developer, charles kushner who, as you know, is jared kushner's father. let's discuss, now, with anne milgram, and elie honig. i'm just guessing we may share some similar viewpoints. let's flush it out. elie, let me begin with you because these pardons, they don't have anything to do with justice. when you look at these pardons, please, tell me what do you see? >> laura, what i see is the injustice and the abuse of power getting deeper, literally, by the day. it was 24 hours ago, you and i were on this show having a conversation about how outrageous yesterday's batch of pardons were. and now, we have got two dozen more. and i think it's particularly painful for dedicated and proud doj alums, like you and anne and me, to see what's going on here. now, there is a pattern emerging that i think is hard to ignore, and it's disturbing. if you look back at the mueller investigation, the four main players who refused to cooperate or lied to prosecutors. manafort, flynn, papadopoulos, and stone. they've all, now, been p

they include charles kushner, real estate developer and father of trump's son-in-law, jared kushner.r longtime associate roger stone. his sentence had been commuted. also, former campaign manager of 2016, paul manafort. 26 people have been pardoned today. gunmen have attacked the townn

>> the charles kushner pardon happened last night is i think a preview.he president was dipping his toe in the family pot and that's where we expect before this is all over that the president is going to go. we expect -- we know there's been conversations with the president inside the president's circle about issuing pardons preemptive pardons to his family members, to even himself. and so, that's where we eventually see this going. the question is how do you structure a preemptive pardon to cover everything? and i think that's going to be the legal hurdle that they're going to have to go through. we expect obviously there's some other characters including rudy giuliani who has been running around trying to do the president's bidding, to undermine the confidence in the election result. rudy giuliani is obviously one of the big names. and so is steve bannon suddenly after being on the outs with the president is very chummy with him. he's having him on his podcast. those are the names that i think we're going to keep watching for. and we still have, bianna,

he is a long—term ally of president trump and charles kushner, the father of donald trump's son—in—lanared to two years in prison for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation and making false statements to the federal exchange commission. but these will be seen, certainly by critics of the president, as very controversial pardons indeed. and there is already shock and upset at what the president has already done with pardons, with democratic presidents issued many pardons, barack 0bama and jimmy carter. but mr trump has already pardoned some people engaged in questionable activities who had admitted what they did. absolutely. that is right. this makes a9, the number of people to whom president trump has granted clemency in the last two days either through pardons or through sentence commutation with an acidic and it is a indication of the fact that the president intends to wield this very controversial ability that he has to the benefit of friends, to people who have been loyal to him over the years, to people who in many cases have served prison sentences because of their loyalty

already been commuted, he is of course a long—term ally of president trump, and then of course charles kushnerher of donald trump's son—in—lanared kushner, and he was sentenced to two years in prison for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation and making false statements to the federal exchange commission, but to directly answer your question, these will be seen by critics of the president as very controversial pardons indeed. there is already quite a lot of shocked and upset over what the president has already done with pardons, and of course democratic presidents issued a lot of pardons, barack 0bama andjimmy carter of course, but mr trump was already pardoning people, some people who engaged with really questionable activities who admitted what they had done. absolutely. and this brings to a9, in fact, the number of people to whom president trump has granted clemency in the last two days, either through pardons or through sentence commutations, and it is a clear indication of the fact that the president intends to wield this very controversial ability that he has to the benefit of

the interesting thing here is on charles kushner it doesn't feel like that.n insider deal. chris christie has been very eloquent, donald trump's former supporter, about how bad what charles kushner did was and the pardoning of blackwater agents from overseas on charges where they killed civilians in baghdad and expressed no remorse for that including one in prison for life, that sends a terrible signal that is much worse than the studies involving roger stone and the rest. >> one pardon, a former maryland police officer, listen to her. >> this means the world to me, this means the world to my family to receive this pardon from donald trump, this restores my faith a bit in the justice system, it gives me some nice closure. one of the best christmas gift i could have ever hoped for. >> we are running short on time, your thoughts, more pardons to come? >> we will see. we also see this could be a story of redemption. we look at individuals like alice johnson, the justice system isn't always fair. we will see more of these pardons moving forward but i don't think

pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr. trump's senior adviser, jared kushner. multiple crimes in 2004, including setting his brother in law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left

if you look at the white house press release describing why they were given it said to charles kushner he donated to charity. who are they fooling? it should say that is jared kushner's dad. that is repulsive self-dealing. >> one more question on bill barr, after barr -- on barr's last day, trump sends out this tweet that he wants a special counsel to investigate voter fraud. i was struck because bill barr was asked about this on monday in his final press conference and here's what he said. >> if i thought a special counsel at this stage was the right tool and was appropriate, i -- i would do -- i would name one but i haven't and i'm not going to. >> what do you think this means for the new guy coming in? the new acting attorney general, jeffrey rosen. >> it's going to be a difficult decision. bill barr was right you can't appoint a special counsel where there's no fact. i wish bill barr hadn't spent the m months leading up to the election, echoing the false claims of voter fraud but in the end stage he did the right thing. jeffrey rosen is going to be in office for a few weeks, and he

among them, former trump associates paul manafort and roger stone, charles kushner, the father of theresident's son-in-law jared kushner also was pardoned and the covid relief bill adopted by congress suddenly faces an uncertain future. the president said $600 cash payouts to individuals was ridiculously low and called for lawmakers to amend it to $2,000 per person. on wednesday, president trump vetoed the bill that both chambers of congress passed. it sets up what could be the first veto override of his presidency, pitting members of his own party against him. trump's former national security adviser is slamming the president's move. listen. >> for 59 straight years, our parties have compromised their differences to give clear policy direction on defense for the full year, and what trump's veto does here is potentially put that in jeopardy, at a time when we're suffering from one of the worst computer attacks in our history, when we see threats all around the world continuing to grow from china and elsewhere, to do this because he doesn't like this provision or that provision, nobody

mr trump also pardoned charles kushner, the father of his son—in—law, jared.mpaign contributions. we can now speak to seth weathers who's a republican strategist and former campaigner for donald trump in the 2016 presidential election. thank presidential election. you, as always, your time. thank you, as always, your time. you have thrown your full support by mr trump and his pardons, but he has been accused of abusing his power, rewarding those who are loyal to him and close friends, what is your take on this? i'm glad he's not rewarding people who have been disloyal to him, but the first thing that comes to mind for the people who have an issue with the pardons, it reminds me of when president clinton pardoned roger clinton, his brother, for cocaine among other issues. so for the people that are feigning outrage right now, they really don't give a damn, it is all politics. they are trying to make a point about it because it's politics, they want to hurt the president, i get, they want to hurt the president, iget, i they want to hurt the president, i get, iwo

mr trump also pardoned charles kushner, the father of his son—in—law, jared.tness tampering and illegal campaign contributions. let's speak to max kutner, a us political commentator in new york, who's been watching the developments over the last day or so. thank you for your time. as we have just heard, as we havejust heard, among those to receive the presidential pardon our close personal contacts to president trump. what has the reaction been? president trump comes from the world of real estate and construction where doing favours for allies is currency so we favours for allies is currency so we shouldn't be surprised that his doing these sorts of things and of course presidents have done these in the past especially the end of their terms but there is some outcry as is yet another attempt by president trump, and in this case kind of a successful attempt, to blunt the effort of that russia investigation and we are seeing in the past couple of days president trump pardoned not only people who refused to plead guilty in the investigation and kind of stick with

mr trump also pardoned charles kushner, the father of his son—in—law, jared.pering and illegal campaign contributions. max kutner is a us political commentator who's been watching the developments over the last day or so. he gave us his thoughts. president trump comes from the world of real estate and construction where doing favours for allies is kind of currency, so we shouldn't be surprised that he's doing these sorts of things, and of course presidents have done these things in the past especially towards the end of their terms. but there is some outcry as this is yet another attempt by president trump, and in this case kind of a successful attempt, to blunt the impact of that russia investigation. and what's interesting is, we are seeing in the past couple of days president trump pardoned not only people who refused to plead guilty in the investigation and kind of stick with him and have his back in the investigation, but even people who pleaded guilty and cooperated. previously in the week we saw george papadopoulos, we saw alex van der zwaan, so preside

attorney who prosecuted charles kushner explain.n. >> i just think that it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted -- i mean, if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need anymore justification than that? i mean, it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that i prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. and i was u.s. attorney in new jersey, margaret, so we had some loathsome and disgusting crime going on there. but i just laid out the facts. and any objective person who looks at the facts knows, confronted with those facts, i had a moral and an ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> i don't think there's anything more to add to that, josh. that sort of sums it up when it comes to charles kushner. i want to turn and focus on what is coming next. maggie haberman all night, and if anyone's connected, it's maggie says, don't think for a second this is it. this is the appet

his long time confidant roger stone, former campaign manager paul manafort and charles kushner, father of son-in-law jared kushner. ben sasse says "another tranche of felons" saying the group was "rotten to the core." joining success pete williams and msnbc contributor joyce vance. good to see both of you. "the washington post" put it this way. the 20 people who received clemency tuesday only seven were listed in online justice department records. give us sort of a big picture of these pardons and how normal or not normal the numbers and the ways they're going about them are. >> for the trump administration, this is normal. the president tended not to base his pardon decisions on recommendations from the justice department. for 125 years there's been a system that if somebody wants executive clemency, they apply first to the justice department to make their case. the justice department reviewed them and makes recommendations to the white house and the past presidents have basically made their decisions based on the recommendations with tote notable exceptions. in the trump administrati

pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr. trump's senior adviser, jared kushner. a real estate developer, charles kushner was convicted of multiple crimes in 2004, including setting his brother in law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left the white house to spend the holidays at his florida retreat, mar a lago, and after he'd thrown the future of three important pieces of legislation into doubt. chief among them, a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, which, in a video address on twitter, the president branded a disgrace. congress started negotiations on a new package to get urgently needed help to the american people. it's taken forever. however, the bill they are now planning to send back to my desk is much different than anticipated. tied to the coronavirus relief bill is legislation to keep the federal government funded once money runs out on monday. as well as calling on congress to amend that legislation the president also announced he's vetoing the defense policy bill, which funds the t

but let me tell you something about charles kushner.onor to look into that case and to dig into that. and i can say i don't think there is anybody more deserving than charles kushner. i don't think that he would ask for this himself. i'm not aware of anybody asking for this. i think he is someone was a product of chris christie, for example, trying to make a name for himself. and people like that get caught up sometimes in investigations and you do have to look at it and ask the president to make pardons and commutations because sometimes the only authority to do so. >> martha: mark, your thoughts on what we are seeing tonight. >> yeah, i mean this is part of the president's power up your the power granted to him by the constitution and he has every right to do it. there is no limit on this power whatsoever. so you know, there have been far more controversial pardons than this in american history. we just have to go to the clinton administration and the marc rich pardon and pardoning fla terrorists. there has been a lot worse down than

pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr. trump's senior adviser, jared kushner.kushner was convicted of multiple crimes in 2004, including setting his brother in law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left the white house to spend the holidays at his florida retreat, maralago, and after he'd thrown the future of three important pieces of legislation into doubt. chief among them, a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, which, in a video address on twitter, the president branded a disgrace. although he's not participating in any of the congressional efforts to govern he comes in at the last minute issues pardons or threatens pardons and then heads down to maralago for his christmas vacation. it's very disruptive. in the meantime, he's not participating with the biden administration to try and achieve a smooth transition. this is something really unprecedented in our history. with less than a month left in office, mr. trump seems intent on flexing the powers he still has. he's due back at the white

so, today, charles kushner, paul manafort, and roger stone.ny further since we've got this notice those are the three we have, at least for the moment you'll remember, president trump left chaos behind in washington when he said that the stimulus checks, for which he was not involved in lobbying anyone during the process, the $600 checks, disaster relief checks that were agreed upon by both sides in the house and the senate, they weren't enough, he came out and said in a video last night he wanted $2,000 now there's chaos in washington. democrats are seizing on that. republicans, they don't want that big a deal, and they may -- who knows what they're about to do he got on the plane earlier today, didn't answer any questions, and flew off to his holiday trip with, really, nothing settled in washington. and now we've learned about these three pardons. should there be more, i'll bring it to you when i know about it breaking news, even on the eve of christmas eve so 2020. >>> this time of year, it's all about holiday greetings normally, and doctor

pardoned with them was charles kushner, the father of mr trump's senior adviser, jared kushner.crimes in 2004, including setting his brother—in—law up with a prostitute and then trying to blackmail him. news of the pardons came after the president had left the white house to spend the holidays at his florida retreat, mar a lago, and after he'd thrown the future of three important pieces of legislation into doubt. chief among them, a $900 billion coronavirus relief bill, which, in a video address on twitter, the president branded "a disgrace". he is not participating in any of the congressional efforts to govern. but he comes in at the last minute and issues pardons, then heads down to mar—a—lago for his christmas vacation. it is very disruptive. in the meantime he is not participating with the biden administration to achieve a smooth transition. this is something unprecedented in our

the president also pardoned jared kushner's father charles who pleaded guilty to witness retaliation and tax charges in 2005. a trump ally and former u.s. attorney chris christie prosecuted the case refer the pardons came the same day the president vetoed key defense funding bill. he also continues to stand in the way of the covid relief bill unless stimulus payments go up from $600 to $2,000. >> reporter: house democrats tried to boost the payments. >> 600 is certainly not enough for individuals who have been struggling these past seven months. >> reporter: republicans blocked the move. it's up to the president to either sign or veto the original relife bill as unemployment benefits are set to expire the day after christmas. >>> today is the first day of a so called santa rally, a seasonal period where stocks traditionally perform well. the dow is up about 70. wall street is wrapping the trade week early for the christmas holiday. >>> i am anne makovec at the live news desk tracking the latest on the coronavirus picture in the bay area. it's not good. california just became the firs

charles kushner pleaded guilty to witness retaliation and tax charges in 2005. attorney chris christie prosecuted the case which involved allegations that kushner had retaliated against his brother-in-law, a federal witness, by arranging for a prostitute to seduce him and then sending a tape of the incident to his sister. >> it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that i prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. >> reporter: republican senator ben sasse called the pardons rock en rotten to the core. the president escalates tensions with congress, vetoing a key defense spending bill and standing in the way of $600 stimulus payments to millions of americans, even though he remained silent throughout months of negotiations. he's now demanding payouts more than three times higher. >> $2,000 or $4,000 for a couple. >> reporter: something democratic leaders said the house of representatives could vote on by noon today. >> people are hurting right now. they're hurting. and we need to get relief to them immediately. >> reporter: like furloughed flight attendant tro

the business names last night, roger stone, charles manafort, charles kushner. joining me is harry litman. great to have you on. a lot to talk about. >> thanks, bianna. >> i know you were surprised by this. you called this a frontal assault on the criminal justice system. why is this such an affront? >> yeah, those are broad words, but bianna, this goes so much farther than simply cleaning up the business or following through on the blackwater probe. blackwater guards, these are the hallmark cases that the department of justice stakes its reputation on and years and years of work, and they're wiped out in a fell swoop. there's a fooling of a drunken buffoonery on trump's part, but it's much more grave and serious on its impact overall in what the department of justice's work is supposed to be. >> yet we have grown numb to so many of this president's actions. we shouldn't be surprised in notes from a former conversation with rick gates, agents recounted the following. manafort told gates it was stupid to plead, and he would get a better deal down the road. manafo

kushner, the president's son if law, who is also, we are told, hoping for a pardon for his father charles kushnerdon't know that jared kushner has asked the president for that pardon. we do understand, according to our sources, that other people have lobbied the white house for a pardon for charles kushner. beyond that, of course, there are preemptive pardons for the president's attorney rudy guiliani and even discussion about preemptive pardons for the president's children, that, of course, will be highly controversial. >> it certainly would be, jeremy dimon at the white house, we will get back to you as well. let's discuss this with our senior attorney for the southern district of new york. the president said considering all these preemptive pardons, including for three of his children, ivanka, don, eric, son-in-law jared kushner, his long-time friend and attorney rudy guiliani, how would that actually work and what concerns potentially does that raise? >> well, the first thing is he almost certainly has the legal constitutional authority to do it and that might surprise some people, the pardon

williams joins us now with more. >> reporter: in the first affect clemency, the president pardoned charles kushnerhner. the elder kushner, a multimillionaire real estate developer pleaded guilty in 2004 to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations. the president also pardoned paul manafort, his former campaign chairman, convicted of hiding millions of dollars in income from political consulting that he did for the pro-russian government in ukraine. and the president gave a full pardon to former campaign adviser roger stone, whose sentence he commuted in july. stone says he's relieved. >> any reasonable person who looks at my prosecution would understand that this was all about politics. >> reporter: manafort and stone were both prosecuted by robert mueller's special counsel team. a white house statement called manafort a victim of, quote, perhaps the greatest witch hunt in american history. but those pardons especially issued after the president left for florida drew bipartisan condemnation. congressman jerry nadler jerry nadler a new york democrat, said the president is handing out reward

charles kushner's sister who was cooperating with the state -- does that make sense? ney who prosecuted kushner describing the crime. >> i just think that it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. i mean, if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it, and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need any more justification than that? i mean, it's one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes that i prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney, and i was the attorney in new jersey, margaret, and we had some loathsome and disgusting crime going on there. any objective person that looks at the facts knows confronted with those facts, i had a moral and ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> wow. so far there has been little reaction by republicans about trump's latest round of pardons. senator ben sasse issued a one-sentence statement saying the pardons of, quote, another tranche of felons like manafort and stone who flagrantly and repeatedly violated the law and harme

they include charles kushner, real estate developer and father of trump's son-in-law, jared kushner.o pardons for longtime associate roger stone. his sentence had been commuted. also, former campaign manager of 2016, paul manafort. 26 people have been pardoned today. gunmen have attacked the town i

trump's former campaign manager, paul manafort, long-time trump ally, roger stone, and charles kushnerthe father of the president's son-in-law, jared kushner. joining me now, former republican congressman charlie dent and ron brownstein, senior editor at the atlantic. what a night, gentlemen, what a night to behold, and i suspect not the last of a series of pardons. ron, first on these pardons, you are say we didn't end up here in one day, that there's a reason we ended up here. tell me what is that reason. >> look, you don't get here in a day, laura and you don't get here on your own. the only way that president trump got to the point of undertaking actions that were so egregious and so flagrantly violate the rule of law and the traditions of the american presidency is that step by step, week by week, month by month, year by year, republicans in congress have enabled and abetted him. not one republican in both pg chambers of congress thought it was worthy of sanction when he openly extorted the government of ukraine. there was no objection when he tried to weaponize the postal service

and trump pardoned charles kushner, the father of trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, jared kushner. charles kushner was convicted in 2005 on charges of tax fraud, illegal campaign contributions, and witness tampering. so far, 60 of trump's 65 pardons have gone to people he personally knows or who aided him politically. in tennessee, authorities say a 63-year-old white man whose body was found at the scene of a christmas morning explosion in downtown nashville was responsible for the blast. anthony quinn warner was a self-employed computer worker. before the blast, an rv with a recorded message warned area residents to evacuate. >> if you can hear this message, evacuate now. can hear this message, evacuate now," a woman's voice repeats from the rv. authorities say warner's dna was found among the wreckage. no motive has been identified and no other fatalities were reported. three people were injured. the blast damaged dozens of structures and caused at least one building to collapse. the bomb went off outside an at&t transmission building, disrupting services, including some 911 cal

charles kushner did some horrible things. i encourage everyone to look at chris christie's interview. chris christie prosecuted. so forth that's why jerk kushner kept a mouthy cabinet. >> it's pretty horrible things he did to his own family. he was pardon tonight. look,. >> i heard they ate a baby at thanksgiving instead of a turke turkey. [laughter] >> may be. congress needs a look at that the need to be some change year. the founders never envisioned a president being this a moral there pardon power is this president has in using for such self-dealing. super you know what? maybe congress can sprout some and tablets and rain and some of that executive power board that you all love with president obama gave way too much slack. so this is what happens when you concentrate too much power in the presidency my friend. stick around panel because we are going to play trump or false prints with the best games and it is game night. first of all joe biden claims the brouhaha on hunter is a bunch of russian misinformation. demise the f

chris cristie prosecuted charles kushner, okay? his crimes, the felonies, are garden variety. man is not. this isn't me passing judgment. listen to chris cristie talk about this president. >> i just think that it was so obvious he had to be prosecuted. if a guy hires a prostitute to seduce his brother-in-law and videotapes it and then sends the videotape to his sister to attempt to intimidate her from testifying before a grand jury, do i really need any more justification than that? i mean, it is one of the most disgusting crimes that i have prosecuted when i was u.s. attorney. and i was u.s. attorney in new jersey, margaret, so we had loads of disgusting crime going on there. i just laid out the facts. confronted with those facts, i had a moral and an ethical obligation to bring that prosecution. >> i mean, just on this one case alone, that's an interview there with margaret hoover here at cnn "firing line" on pbs. let's say you were back in the box and you have to defend this pardon. how do you defend him? >> you would try to avoid reporters and you would, you know, hide, bl

. >> also on the pardon list is charles kushner, the son-in-lawt jared kushner. it was tied to a family scandal and with hours of the pardon being released there was outrage from lawmakers including nebraska g.o.p. senator ben sasse ben sasse who in a one sentence statement wrote "this is rotten to the core." >> mike: we are still waiting to see ife the president mayn issue more pardons while he's here in florida. they are working to override the president's veto of the national defense authorization act and also on monday the house speaker says the house will be working or not to increase the stimulus payments once again with a roll call vote.it these are the payments of the president says he wants. stay tuned. >> mike: it should be a busy next week. mark meredith starting us off. here are some good news. the stocks are up to date, the dow gained 70 and the s&p rose 13 and that nasdaq jumped 34. a massive rush massive russia linked cyber attack allowed hackers to spend months mining federal government networks and private company systems across the globe which i

trump's former campaign manager paul manafort, longtime trump ally roger stone, and charles kushner, e father of the president's son-in-law jared kushner. joining me now former republican congressman charlie dent and ron brownstein, senior editor at "the atlantic." gentlemen, what a night to behold and i expect not the last of a series of pardons. ron, first on these pardons you say we didn't end up here in one day, that there's a reason we ended up here. so, tell me, what is that reason? >> look, you don't get here in a day, laura, and you don't get here on your own. the only way that president trump got to the point of undertaking actions that were so egregious, so flagrantly violate the rule of law and the traditions of the american presidency is that step-by-step, week by week, month by month, year by year, republicans have abetted and defended him as he has moved further out into indefensible activity. when he only extorted the government of ukraine, there was no objection when he tried to weaponize the postal service, intervene in criminal cases. they have gone step-by-step with