People Trump Pardons Could Face NY Charges Under New Law

NEW YORK — Some people lucky enough to get a pardon from President Donald Trump could still face criminal charges in New York under a law signed Wednesday.

The measure closes the state's so-called double jeopardy loophole to let prosecutors bring state charges against certain people who receive presidential pardons for a similar offense.

The law is an apparent effort to stop Trump from helping his associates evade criminal penalties in New York, where the Republican president was born and has done business for decades.

"No one is above the law and New York will not turn a blind eye to criminality, no matter who seeks to protect them," Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.

With some exceptions, New York law generally protects criminal defendants from being charged with state crimes if federal authorities have already prosecuted them for the same behavior.

The bill Cuomo signed Wednesday adds a new exception to that rule to make it clear that state criminal laws apply to certain people who receive presidential pardons, closing a loophole that officials say was ripe for abuse.

Officials say the change is narrowly crafted to allow state prosecutors to go after people with close relationships to the president, not those who have paid their debt to society for federal crimes.

"With the President all but pledging to corruptly abuse his pardon power to allow friends and associates off the hook, it is crucial that we have closed the Double Jeopardy loophole and preserved the rule of law in New York," state Sen. Todd Kaminsky, a Long Island Democrat who sponsored the measure, said in a statement.

The law was signed as Trump and his associates face mounting legal woes in the Empire State.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has sought Trump's tax returns from his accounting firm in an investigation of hush money paid to the porn star Stormy Daniels during the 2016 campaign.

Vance's office has also brought mortgage fraud charges against Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who was convicted of a bevy of federal crimes earlier this year.

Trump has granted 16 pardons since taking office in 2017. They include former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of contempt of court for illegally detaining people, and the conservative polemicist Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty to a campaign-finance violation in 2014.