President Donald Trump would be out of his mind and committing a gross tactical political mistake for himself if he were to pardon his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, John Yoo, deputy assistant attorney general under George W. Bush, told Fox News on Wednesday.
"I don't see why he should get any consideration of mercy from the president," Yoo said, pointing out Manafort pleaded guilty and clearly committed the crimes.
In addition, Yoo added, in any case, "Some states, like New York, that are relatively hostile to President Trump, want to prevent any consequences if President Trump were to pardon Paul Manafort," because the president can only pardon for federal crimes and not state crimes.
Shortly after Manafort's sentencing Wednesday, New York state prosecutors announced they also indicted him on new charges of residential mortgage fraud.
Yoo said the three-and-a-half year sentence Manafort received earlier in the day was fair, because he could have been sentenced for up to 10 years in prison.
The sentence Wednesday was in addition to the 47-month prison sentence Manafort received last week in a separate criminal case in Virginia.
Yoo also questioned Manafort's lawyer's harsh criticism of the length of Wednesday's sentence, emphasizing he should not show any disrespect to the judge, because she will still have much involvement with the case and it is not wise to antagonize her.
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