WASHINGTON – Rep. Tom Reed defended President Trump's pardon of former Rep. Chris Collins, but Democrats reacted with rage to the move.
"The president has the right to grant this pardon," Reed, of Corning, said in a statement late Tuesday. "The Collins family has paid a price for Chris’ transgressions and justice has been served.”
Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican who succeeded Collins in Congress, will not comment on the pardon, his spokesman, Christian Chase, said Wednesday.
Other Republican lawmakers remained silent even though the White House, in announcing the Collins pardon, said it came "at the request of many Members of Congress."
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White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany did not respond to an email seeking the names of those members of Congress, and another White House spokesperson declined comment.
The Collins pardon came amid a wave of 15 pardons and the commutation of the sentences of five others. Two other lawmakers-turned-felons – former Rep. Duncan Hunter of California and former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas – were among those granted clemency.
Collins, who has already been released from prison, had been 10 weeks into a 26-month sentence after pleading guilty to felony insider trading charges.
The Collins pardon enraged Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat.
"This reeks of cronyism and corruption like we have never seen emanating from any White House under any president," Schumer said. "It’s a sad day for justice."
Rep. Brian Higgins, a Buffalo Democrat, agreed.
"The president's pardon of Chris Collins and other convicted criminals is the latest in a long series of shameful acts the president has committed," Higgins said on Twitter Wednesday morning. "But it comes as no surprise that this president shields his political cronies from paying for their crimes."
New York Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, who lost her seat in Congress to Collins in 2012, was equally outraged.
"Another Trump crony gets a free pass after breaking the law," she said on Twitter. "This is brazen corruption."
The Collins pardon came as a shock in Washington. White House reporters and pundits have been speculating for weeks that Trump might pardon figures caught up in the special counsel investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election along with other Trump allies, but the names of Collins and the other felonious former lawmakers never came up in those reports.
But Andrea Nikischer, one of the founding members of the "Citizens Against Collins" that tried to prod the lawmaker into holding town hall meetings, had been speculating about a possible Collins pardon for more than a year.
"He betrayed us," she said of Collins. "He lied to us about this crime; he said he didn't commit it. He did commit it, he admitted he committed it, and then went to the judge and said he was ready to take responsibility. He has probably spent every waking minute since then trying to get a pardon."
Republicans like Reed and Jacobs let him do it, Nikischer added.
"The reason that Trump can make these pardons and not have to think about it is that his congressional representatives, his party, do not hold him accountable," she said.
