NY-11: Grimm lobs grenade into GOP primary with Trump pardon claim

During a debate on Monday, former Rep. Michael Grimm leveled a stunning charge against his primary opponent and successor in office, fellow Republican Dan Donovan — one that would be a potential ethical violation if true.

Grimm, who pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges in 2014 and spent seven months in prison, claimed Donovan offered to seek a presidential pardon for him if he would forgo a challenge to Donovan in the Republican primary this year. Donovan has acknowledged raising the issue of a pardon for Grimm with President Donald Trump during a trip on Air Force One last summer.

“You were offering pardons because you didn’t want me to run against you. You offered to help,” Grimm claimed at one point in the contentious debate in Manhattan.

The accusation landed like a grenade in the middle of one of the most heated Republican primaries of 2018. Grimm, the brash ex-congressman forced to resign his seat in 2015, is now trying to reclaim his old job from Donovan. GOP leaders want no part of Grimm, and the president is backing Donovan despite Grimm’s attempt to portray himself as the true Trump loyalist in the race.

POLITICO sought interviews with three key people in the imbroglio in an attempt to discern the veracity of Grimm’s claim and its backstory. Only Donovan would talk, and he hotly denied the accusation.

“The guy is a confessed liar,” Donovan told POLITICO. “My opponent is trying to interpret that I think he deserves a pardon. But I was a doing a favor for someone who used to be a friend of mine.” He was referring to Guy Molinari, a former Republican congressman from Staten Island, who was close to both Donovan and Grimm, at least until this campaign, when he sided with Grimm.



https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/14/michael-grimm-dan-donovan-primary-pardon-645617