Pardon Trump? New York governor says president-elect would have to show ‘remorse’

By The Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — As Donald Trump fights to overturn his hush money criminal conviction, the one New York Democrat with authority to grant him a pardon signaled that she would need to see some remorse from the president-elect first.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul was asked Wednesday if she would consider pardoning Trump, after a judge this week refused to throw out the conviction because of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling on presidential immunity.

“There is a pardoning process in the state of New York. It is lengthy,” Hochul said at an unrelated news conference. “It requires a couple of elements. One is remorse.”

She continued: “No one will be treated any better, or any worse, by me when I make those life altering decisions as we’re looking at petitions that are coming in throughout the year. So, no one gets extra favors, no one gets treated worse.”

Trump has been fighting for months to reverse his May 30 conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records. Prosecutors said he fudged the documents to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn actor Stormy Daniels to suppress her claim that they had sex a decade earlier, which Trump denies.

On Monday, a New York judge rejected Trump’s efforts to toss the case because of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Prosecutors have indicated they would be open to delaying a sentencing until Trump leaves the White House, but say the sentence should stand. It remains unclear when — or whether — a sentencing date might be set.

In a recent court filing, Trump’s lawyers cited a social media post in which Sen. John Fetterman used profane language to criticize Trump’s hush money prosecution. The Pennsylvania Democrat suggested that Trump deserved a pardon, comparing his case to that of President Joe Biden’s pardoned son Hunter Biden, who had been convicted of tax and gun charges.

“Weaponizing the judiciary for blatant, partisan gain diminishes the collective faith in our institutions and sows further division,” Fetterman wrote last week on Truth Social.

Trump’s hush money conviction was in state court, meaning a presidential pardon — issued by Biden or himself when he takes office — would not apply to the case, as presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.