Ex-DHS official says Trump offered pardons to immigration officials who broke the law
25 August 2020
Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff of the Department of Homeland Security, claimed in a political ad released Tuesday that President Trump offered to "pardon U.S. government officials for breaking the law to implement his immigration policies."
Why it matters: Taylor, who quit the Trump administration in 2019 and endorsed Joe Biden last week, is one of a number of Republicans seeking to stop the president's re-election. Trump denied that he offered pardons to immigration officials when the allegations were first reported by the Washington Post and New York Times in August 2019.
What he's saying:
"Even though he had been told on repeated occasions that he wanted to do was illegal, his response was to say ‘Do it. If you get in trouble, I’ll pardon you.’
"It was made clear to the president that it was against the law to simply deny anyone entry across the southern border including people who were fleeing violence, persecution, danger. Under the law, they had the right to come in to try to seek refuge in the United States. He said ‘I don’t care.’ His exact words were, ‘The bins are full.’
"The president offered to pardon U.S. government officials for breaking the law to implement his immigration policies. That was the moment I decided I was going to have to quit the Trump administration."
The big picture: Taylor and other former U.S. officials and advisers from the Trump administration have formed an anti-Trump group called the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform. We’ll have a broad group of Republicans focused on denying Trump a second term, and most importantly, planning for a post-Trump GOP and America,” Taylor told NBC News.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.