Attorney flags 'cynical purpose' for Trump's most recent pardons: 'Just decided to do it'

A former federal pardon attorney flagged the "cynical purpose" of President Donald Trump's latest batch of pardons during a podcast interview on Monday.

Liz Oyer, the former pardon attorney in the Biden Department of Justice, discussed Trump's decision to pardon five former NFL football players, one of whom was deceased, last week during a new episode of "The Daily Beast Podcast" with Joanna Coles. She argued that there was no legally justifiable reason for the pardons and noted that the five players were surprised to have been granted pardons because they had not applied for them.

But there seemed to be a higher purpose for the move, Oyer argued.

"He clearly thought that there was some constituency that he could ingratiate himself with by pardoning these former football players, but there really wasn't any specific request," Oyer said. "It seems like for the pardons, there wasn't any specific need that he was addressing. He just decided to do it, probably for some cynical purpose that involved appealing to a certain constituency of maybe NFL fans."

The move occurred as Trump and the Republican Party are gearing up for a midterm election that is shaping up to be contentious, at best. Trump has alarmed election experts with his efforts to take election data from the Fulton County, Georgia, election offices. He also threatened to send ICE agents to polling centers during the midterm election itself.