Frank Figliuzzi, a former senior FBI official, said Wednesday that President Donald Trump could face charges of “construction of justice” if he issues a preemptive pardon for his three eldest children as he tries to avoid prosecution after leaving office.
Figliuzzi, who served as the FBI assistant director, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell that pardons for Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Rudy Giuliani could be considered obstruction if any of them are involved in alleged criminal wrongdoing with the president.
“I’m viewing these pardons and even talk of these pardons as essentially a lawful form of obstruction of justice,” Figliuzzi said. “That’s because I think either currently or in the future, it’s likely these family members we’re talking about may be under investigation for crimes to which the president may himself be a party, so this is far less about a caring father acting out of concern for his children but rather someone who may be a defendant acting out of concern that he’s exposed criminally.”
“This also, looking at this through the lens of an investigator,” Figliuzzi added, “it concerns me that this may stymie or even defeat an investigative strategy of trying to have a family member leveraged to flip against their father or the president or even against each other, and that kind of defeats that if no one is ever facing any criminal exposure.”
Watch the interview below, via MSNBC:
