Donald Trump on Friday challenged President Barack Obama to pledge not to issue a presidential pardon to Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server while leading the State Department.
Clinton, however, has been cleared of any criminal wrongdoing by the FBI and the Justice Department.
Trump issued his “demand” during a rally here as he repeatedly railed against Clinton’s tenure at the State Department and her subsequent misleading and even false statements about whether she had sent or received classified information through her personal email account.
The White House has in no way suggested a pardon is under consideration.
“Here’s the demand I’m making today to President Obama,” Trump said. “Will you pledge not to issue a pardon to Hillary Clinton and her co-conspirators for their many crimes against our country and against society itself? Will you make that pledge?”
Trump also challenged Clinton to pledge not to allow any of her aides who received immunity from the FBI to serve in a future Clinton administration. The FBI granted limited immunity deals to at least two Clinton aides, including Clinton’s State Department Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, when the FBI requested to search the two attorneys’ laptops, sources told CNN late last week.
This isn’t the first time Trump has called for legal action to be taken against his Democratic challenger. In June, he called for Clinton to be jailed over the email matter, and he has said that if he is elected, he would instruct his attorney general to investigate her.
Trump followed up his comments by raising several Clinton controversies from the 1990s, including the Whitewater scandal, the cattle futures controversy and even former President Bill Clinton’s controversial 11th hour pardon of Marc Rich, a prominent oil trader who fled the country after learning of plans to indict him on tax evasion, racketeering and breaking an embargo against Iran.
The former president said in a 2002 interview with Newsweek that he regretted making the pardon because “it wasn’t worth the damage to my reputation.”
Trump has infrequently raised Clinton scandals dating back to the 1990s on the campaign trail, and while he resisted the urge to raise Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities at Monday’s — though he alluded to them — Trump has suggested that he may at the next event.
On Thursday, Trump raised Bill Clinton’s impeachment during a rally, and has sought to connect the former president’s missteps to Hillary Clinton.
“The people of this country are tired of the lies. They’re tired of trivial politics. They’re tired of being talked down to. They’re tired of being looked down upon and being treated like second class citizens,” Trump said Friday.
He also picked back up on his warnings about voter fraud — instances of which are extremely rare — as he urged voters to keep an eye out on Election Day to “make sure it’s on the up and up.” Trump has previously called on voters to monitor polling places on Election Day and watch for fraudulent behavior.
“Because you know what, that’s a big, big problem in this country and nobody wants to talk about it,” Trump said. “So go and watch these polling places. Make sure it’s on the up and up, please.”
“That would be one hell of a way to lose,” he added.
