USA Today published a well-timed piece over the weekend, noting that Donald Trump has embraced a crew of convicted criminals as the former president’s campaign advances.
Like many things that Trump does, bringing back into the fold a group of political operatives that he pardoned has no modern historical precedent. … “With Lincoln, they had a team of rivals,” [Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley] said. “With Trump, you have a team of felons.” Presidents normally try not to be associated with criminals, Brinkley noted.
For now, let’s put aside the question about whether the former president will himself be a convicted felon between now and Election Day 2024. Instead, it’s worth appreciating the scope of his “team of felons,” which by some measures is still growing.
In fact, just yesterday, as part of the parade of partisan allies showing up at the Manhattan Criminal Court, Bernard Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner, was on hand to show his support for the defendant.
Kerik, of course, also went to prison after pleading guilty to federal tax fraud and other charges before his release in 2013. As Marketwatch noted, he also received a Trump pardon in 2020.
The former president’s courthouse entourage also included Chuck Zito, who, as The New Republic noted, also spent several years in prison for drug conspiracy charges.
This comes a week after the public learned that Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, also had an advisory role with the Republican National Convention, despite Manafort having gone to prison — right up until Trump pardoned him shortly before Christmas 2020, rewarding his former aide for failing to cooperate with law enforcement.
Meanwhile, Peter Navarro, another member of Trump’s inner circle, is currently in prison, while it appears increasingly likely that Steve Bannon, who remains close with the former president’s operation, will soon be behind bars, too. USA Today’s report added that Michael Flynn and Roger Stone “are spending time with former President Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago,” and both received Trump pardons after being accused of serious felonies. The number of people in Trump’s orbit who’ve been convicted of crimes in recent years is so great, The Washington Post once described it as the “remarkable universe of criminality“ surrounding the former president. That was nearly five years ago. By any fair measure, the “team of felons” problem is quite a bit worse now.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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