GOP presidential rival vows to pardon Trump if elected in 2024

Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy pledged to pardon former President Trump “promptly” if he were elected in 2024.

“It would be much easier for me to win this election if Trump weren’t in the race, but I stand for principles over politics,” Ramaswamy wrote in a post on Twitter. “I commit to pardon Trump promptly on January 20, 2025 and to restore the rule of law in our country.”

Less than an hour earlier, Trump claimed he had been notified he would be federally indicted in the classified documents probe led by special counsel Jack Smith. The former president said he is due in federal court next Tuesday and called it “a dark day” for the country. 

In a lengthy statement, Ramaswamy said there were “two tiers of justice” in play and echoed fellow Republicans in accusing President Biden of instructing the Justice Department (DOJ) to go after his political rival. 

“I never thought we’d see the day when the U.S. President deputizes the DOJ to arrest his lead rival in the middle of an election,” he wrote.  

“This is an affront to every citizen: we cannot devolve into a banana republic where the party in power uses police force to arrest its political opponents,” Ramaswamy added. “It’s hypocritical for the DOJ to selectively prosecute Trump but not Biden.”