Speculation mounts over who Trump might pardon after Flynn - The Guardian

Rick Gates, Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign chair, says president ‘knows how much those of us who worked for him have suffered’.

Amid widespread outcry over Donald Trump’s pardon of Michael Flynn, speculation surged about who might be next for clemency from the defeated president.

Rick Gates, Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign chair, told the New York Times the president “knows how much those of us who worked for him have suffered, and I hope he takes that into consideration if and when he grants any pardons”.

After pleading guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators, he was sentenced to 45 days in jail.

Flynn, a retired general who was fired from the Defense Intelligence Agency by Barack Obama in 2014, became a trusted campaign surrogate for Trump.

But Trump fired him as national security adviser after just 24 days on the job, for lying to Vice-President Mike Pence about contacts with Russian officials.

He pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI but was not sentenced before Trump pardoned him on Wednesday, saying: “Have a great life General Flynn!”.

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser, was sentenced to 14 days in jail after pleading guilty to lying to the FBI.

Senior Democrats, including the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi; the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer; and the House intelligence chair, Adam Schiff, were among those to condemn the Flynn pardon as a serious abuse of power