Pardons Do Not Preclude Civil Suits

7/18/25 Guardian:

"Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has called for Barack Obama and former senior US national security officials to be prosecuted after accusing them of a “treasonous conspiracy” intended to show that Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential election win was due to Russian interference."

Some of the bad actors were pardoned.   While pardons preclude criminal punishment,  they do not preclude civil suits.  People who spent money defending themselves from prosecutions associated with that fraud certainly have a basis to sue these pardoned criminals.   I suppose Trump could sue for wages lost when not serving as President. 

In addition,  being civil suits, the standard of proof is lower.  Injured parties could sue in districts not in D.C., assisting in the process.   And as the victims of Russiagate discovered, they need not win a big award: the process is the punishment. 

UPDATE: As i was walki5, I just realized the U.S. government has a claim against the conspirators: the money spent by the special prosecutor investigating a scandal with nothing actual to investigate. 

Just sent to A-G Bondi:

While pardons issued by President Autopen shield many of the Russiagate conspirators from criminal charges, they provide no shield from civil suits. Along with many private citizens injured by the Russiagate investigation (including, arguably President Trump for lost wages 2021-2025), the U.S. Government also has a civil claim: the $32 million spent by the special prosecutor, for an investigation that had no "there" there. Even if the civil suits yield no return the conspirators can discover how the process is the punishment.

When Even the Nation Admits This

5/1/19 The Nation. If you are not fanilar with it, this is the magazine of the organized left, like National Review for the right:

§ Toward the end of the first volume (pp. 144, 146), Mueller produces a truly stunning revelation, though he seems unaware of it. After the 2016 US presidential election, the Kremlin “appeared not to have preexisting contacts…with senior officials around the President-Elect.” Even more, “Putin spoke of the difficulty faced by the Russian government in getting in touch with the incoming Trump Administration…. Putin indicated that he did not know with whom formally to speak and generally did not know the people around the President-Elect.”

So much for all the shameful Russiagate allegations of Trump-Putin collusion, conspiracy, even treason. Surely it means the United States needs another, different investigation, one into the actual origins and meaning of this fraudulent, corrosive, exceedingly dangerous, and still unending American political scandal.