NY State Senator Todd Kaminsky will introduce bill closing double jeopardy pardon-loophole,

[pnwmom]

after Attorney General Schneiderman requested that the legislature do so.

The new bill, if passed, will ensure that pardons Trump issues on Federal crimes will not prevent a subsequent prosecution in New York courts. (New York state has very strong state banking laws, money-laundering laws, and fraud laws, because it is the center of the banking industry in the U.S.)

The New York Assembly is controlled by the Democrats, but the Senate is controlled by the Republicans, by a one-vote margin. The Republicans have that majority because a single Democratic Senator, Simcha Felder, has been caucusing with the Republicans. The passage of this bill will depend on his position -- and he's from a district that voted heavily for Trump.

He's being opposed in the September primary by a Democrat who promises to legislate as a Democrat, Blake Morris.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/18/new-york-ag-eric-schneiderman-seeks-to-close-trump-pardon-loophole.html

"Simply put, a defendant pardoned by the President for a serious federal crime could be freed from all accountability under federal and state criminal law, even though the President has no authority under the U.S. Constitution to pardon state crimes," Schneiderman wrote.

He added that the New York state legislature "could not have possibly intended this result."

Schneiderman asked the legislature to pass an amendment to state law to prevent the scenario from happening.

Sen. Kaminsky, who plans to introduce that amendment, in a statement said, "The Double Jeopardy loophole allows criminal behavior to go unpunished in our state and needs to be closed."

"The writers of our state's strict Double Jeopardy statute did not take into account the President's pardon power, and certainly did not contemplate the capricious use of that power to undermine the rule of law," Kaminsky said.

[MattP]

1. They have had some funky turncoat dinos in NY

[pnwmom]

2. Most of them have rejoined the D's. But there's this Felder. n/t

[Nevilledog]

3. Easy solution....

Prosecute Cohen in state court first. Issuance of pardon for federal crimes would become moot as there would be no Federal convictions in existence at the time of the state's prosecution.