the case. but we don t know. and, look, kate, the important thing here too for the president is that he doesn t send e-mail, he s known not to communicate in any ways that leaves a record, so if he s on any of these recordings, i mean, that changes everything. it absolutely would. jamil, different topic-ish. the reporting that the president is considering pardoning scooter libby. you to think he should be pardoned? i think obviously president bush had the opportunity to do it to and chose not to do it. there are good arguments here. scooter libby was caught up in an investigation about a bunch of other things, and so, you know, there is good arguments on both sides. we ll see what the president does here. the real thing that has to happen here, go through the normal pardon process, the pardon attorney, the justice department, he reviews it, they send over a recommendation to the white house. that didn t happen with sheriff joe arpaio. right. it didn t happen with arpaio, right? a
level. ask about the process. seems like we have had three. they were all somewhat high profile or gotten the media s attention. how is the president deciding when to take action on a ohio. the scooter libby case was very old. so, and so how are you deciding when to take action on these cases and can a normal person who feels like they have been unjustly convicted, can they get their case to the white house? i mean, does the justice department process, but it seems like the president is taking special interest in certain things. again, the president has exercised constitutional authority and he determines when and how he is going to use that when it comes to the pardon process. evidence looks at each one individually and we make that announcement. sarah. i m sorry.
ayesha. i wanted to ask about the pardoning process. it seems like we have had these three pardons. they all were somewhat high-profile or gotten media attention. how is the president deciding when to take action on a case, i mean with arpaio, he hadn t even been sentenced yet. the libby case was very old. how are you deciding when to take action on these cases? and can a normal person who feels like they have been unjustly convicted, can they get their case to the white house? i mean there is a justice department process, but it seems like the president is taking special interest in certain cases. again, the president has exercised constitutional authority, and he determines when and how he s going to use that when it comes to the pardon process. he looks at each one individually and makes a decision. and we make that announcement. nadia. what are you calling?
coming at this time. the other thing i would say, too, is this is a pardon that didn t go through the ordinary pardon process. one thing that viewers may not know is that typically there is a lengthy petition that is made for a pardon and a very complicated set of procedures that are followed to evaluate pardons. there s an entire office in the justice department that plays a big role in that. and that wasn t followed here. i think you were mentioning earlier that there s certainly an implication that this is sending a message. kellyanne conway said just a moment ago, you played that clip, that this is what she called i think a special counsel run amok. i used to work for pat fitzgerald. he was the last special counsel and he s a man who s very much respected in law enforcement as somebody who spent decades handling some of the most important cases in our country, everything from being the man who indicted bin laden, to
so i don t think that we can rule that out. the timing of his departure on the heels of the news that he had dangled those pardons is certainly one piece of evidence from which you could conclude that he had been told that there were problems coming down the road. the origin of that problem is that the pardon process is something and nicolle, i m sure you know this, you expect to see that process initiated some place along the spectrum between the justice department and the white house issuing pardons. you don t expect to see that happening with a lawyer in private practice who represents the president. it looks like the quintessential bribe and i m sure mueller s team will take a good hard look at dowd whether or not he becomes a subject in the investigation, it s really not even possible to speculate. frank figliuzzi our our viewers can t see you nodding but i can. go ahead. mueller is going to key in on