Trump seeks to erase the stain of the Russian investigation

Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is a stubborn stain on Donald Trump's tenure, which the president is trying to erase before leaving office by pardoning his convicted protagonists. 

The U.S. president pardoned Wednesday evening about thirty people, including Paul Manafort, his former 2016 campaign manager, and his former advisor Roger Stone, both implicated in this investigation into possible collusion between Russia and his 2016 campaign team.

The day before, Mr. Trump had granted pardons to two other personalities involved in the investigation: a former diplomatic adviser, George Papadopoulos, and a Dutch lawyer, Alex van der Zwaan.

And at the end of November, he had already granted amnesty to Michael Flynn, his former national security advisor, convicted notably for lying to FBI investigators in the case.

All these men have one thing in common: they never cooperated with the investigators to protect the Republican billionaire, said Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. 

"During the Mueller investigation, Trump's lawyer raised the idea of a pardon with Manafort. Manafort stopped cooperating with the prosecutors, he lied, he was convicted and Trump congratulated him for not having +mouchardé+," he recalled in a tweet. "Trump's pardon is the culmination of this conspiracy.

Mafia chief

Two other relatives, former handyman Michael Cohen and former deputy campaign manager Rick Gates, both of whom worked with the law, have not been pardoned by the president, who is scheduled to leave the White House on January 20.

Robert Mueller, who found no evidence of criminal cooperation between Russia and the billionaire's campaign team, refrained from commenting on the clemency.

But its chief investigator, Andrew Weissmann, expressed his outrage Thursday on NBC. 

"The pardons granted by this president is what you would expect if you gave the power to grant pardons to a mob boss," he said.

The U.S. president has consistently described as "misinformation" the findings of his own intelligence services, which claim that Moscow has conducted a campaign of computer intrusions and manipulation of social networks to promote the election of Donald Trump in 2016 and discredit Hillary Clinton.

Trump, who ends his tenure with a mixed record and an uncertain judicial horizon, including two tax fraud investigations in New York State, may feel protected in the Russian investigation, which has now pardoned the main protagonists.

But, Weissmann warned, they are only pardoned for past crimes and may be heard again, by other judges. 

"You can't be pardoned for future crimes and all these people, Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn, they have evidence in their heads," he noted, pointing out that they may be called to testify again.

In addition, noted Yale University law professor Timothy Snyder, presidential pardons are a double-edged sword because they imply that those pardoned were indeed guilty.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1915 that a presidential pardon involves an "imputation of guilt" and that an acceptance of a pardon constitutes a "confession".