Former Obama-era Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson told Morning Joe that he expected “mass resignation” from the Department of Justice following President Donald Trump’s pardoning of January 6 offenders.
On his first day in office on Monday Trump pardoned approximately 1,500 Capitol riot defendants and prisoners, and commuted the sentences of 8 more, in an on camera Oval Office event after his inauguration.
eflecting on the move, which Trump had long teased, Johnson spoke with MSNBC hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on Tuesday.
Scarborough began by noting that pardons for January 6 offenders were “what his base wanted” and what they had “voted for” – even for “rioters who beat the hell out of law enforcement officers” despite Vice President JD Vance’s cautious comment in previous weeks that violent offenders should not be pardoned.
The host asked: “What I’m curious about Jeh Johnson, with obviously your background and extensive knowledge of law enforcement and the dealing with U.S. Attorneys, I’m wondering what the repercussions of this will be? What the impact will be for each one of those 1600 cases?”
Johnson replied to say that he’d already spoken to “disenchanted” Justice Department prosecutors.
There’s a federal prosecutor assigned dedicated to the case who’s feeling pretty disenchanted this morning. I would not be surprised if we saw a mass resignation from the department of justice as a result of this. Going back to this issue of the executive orders, that’s probably.
“Yeah, that’s what some would argue,” Scarborough said.