Trump using a new 'dirty tool' to reward his friends and supporters: CNN host

CNN host Kasie Hunt said Wednesday that President Donald Trump's pardons of his supporters feel "like a dirty tool," noting that he has pardoned several allies since returning to office in January.

During a segment on CNN Tuesday, Hunt asked the panel what message these pardons send. Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) said they "tell a story of a very transactional president."

"There is some there is a transaction. There's some connection, whether it's just support or whatever. It is the opposite of what he says about the weaponization of the Department of Justice," he said.

READ MORE: A veteran tells Trump 'to go straight to hell'

"He is now using the pardon power to reward friends, consistently. And it's really, I think, a pretty pathetic use of the pardon," the Alabama Democrat said.

"All the friends will get pardoned," Jones added.

Elliot Williams, former deputy assistant attorney general, argued during the show that while the framers of the Constitution wanted to put this limitation on the executive and its ability to prosecute people by giving presidents the authority to pardon individuals and get them out of prison, it is being used differently under Trump.

"What's different here is the termination or sidelining of all these attorneys and the pardon office in the Justice Department that could have provided better advice to the president as to how's this person behaved. What's the nature of their crime? Is this person deserving of clemency?" he said.

READ MORE: Trump gives up the game and tells half of America what he really thinks of them

Earlier on Wednesday, former Rep. Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.) received a full presidential pardon from Trump, several media outlets reported.

Grimm, a Republican, was found guilty in late 2014 of tax-related offenses linked to a restaurant he operated in Manhattan prior to his time in Congress. Prosecutors accused him of concealing both income and employee wages and submitting fraudulent tax filings.

He was also alleged to have hired undocumented workers, paid them in unreported cash, evaded workers' compensation insurance obligations in New York, among other charges.

On Tuesday, Trump announced his intention to grant full pardons to Todd and Julie Chrisley, the reality TV stars who have spent over two years behind bars following their convictions for using tax evasion and bank fraud.

Watch the video below or at this link.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com