Former Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah reportedly revealed Monday that he personally urged the Biden administration to issue a preemptive pardon for President Donald Trump during the Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s post-2020 election efforts.
“I called a member of the White House, one of the senior advisers to President Biden,” Romney said during a CNN interview at Drew University in New Jersey. “And I said, ‘If the Justice Department decides to indict President Trump, I hope President Biden will immediately eliminate that, and that he will provide a pardon immediately.’”
Romney, the GOP’s 2012 presidential nominee and former governor of Massachusetts, said his reasoning was based on the principle that America cannot afford to criminalize political differences.
“Why?” he explained. “Number one, I don’t want the anger and the hate and the vitriol. But, number two, we just can’t begin to be prosecuting political opponents. Pardoning at that point would have been a way to make that very clear.”
The White House declined to act on his request. “They didn’t do that,” Romney said with a smile.
Romney’s comments come against the backdrop of Trump’s multiple indictments, including those related to his challenge of the 2020 election results, the handling of government documents, and business filings. Trump has called the charges “a witch hunt” and accused Democrats of weaponizing the justice system against him.
Although Romney has frequently broken with Trump — even voting to convict him in both impeachment trials — he warned Monday that pursuing political prosecutions sets a perilous precedent. “The idea that the system of justice is used to punish political opponents is a very dangerous path to go down,” he said. “I just don’t think that’s the right path to go down. I’d go down a different path.”
Romney also distanced himself from the Trump Justice Department’s recent decision to indict former FBI Director James Comey. Comey, accused of making false statements and obstructing a congressional proceeding in his 2020 Senate testimony, has long been a target of Trump’s ire for launching the Russia investigation. “The idea that the system of justice is used to punish political opponents is a very dangerous path,” Romney repeated.
Trump has insisted Comey’s actions were corrupt and politically motivated, pointing to the Russia probe as an illegitimate attempt to undermine his presidency.
The president has openly pressured his attorneys general to pursue charges against Comey and other officials.
Romney, however, suggested Trump’s push for retribution may be fueled by something deeper: “The most powerful negative emotion is humiliation. If you’ve been humiliated, the response is the most significant,” Romney said.
“And I think President Trump, when he was not in office, was humiliated by these actions where he sat in a New York courtroom at the defendant table being chastised by a judge and being attacked by a prosecutor.”
Romney’s remarks highlight a striking paradox: a frequent Trump critic nonetheless urging Democrats to show restraint. His plea underscores what conservatives have long argued — that the Biden administration and its Justice Department have turned prosecution into a political weapon.
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