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Trump Needs to Do the Unthinkable to Get a Pardon for His Hush Money Conviction

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul got a big laugh when she explained one of the key elements required for a pardon in her state.

President-elect Donald Trump has no chance of being granted a pardon for his criminal conviction without first showing some remorse, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.

The Democrat had attendees at a Wednesday news conference cracking up when she was asked if she would consider using her authority to pardon Trump. “There is a pardoning process in the state of New York. It is lengthy,” Hochul said. “It requires a couple of elements—one is remorse.”

“No one will be treated any better or any worse by me when I make those life-altering decisions,” she continued. “We’re looking at petitions that come in throughout the year. So no one gets extra favors, no one gets treated worse.”

She added that there is a “process that everyone has to go through” regardless of whether “you’re the president or anybody else.”

Trump, a proud New Yorker, was found guilty of 34 felony counts earlier this year for falsifying business records in a bid to conceal a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels in return for her silence concerning claims she and Trump had sex a decade earlier. Trump denies ever having sex with Daniels.

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Far from showing remorse, the president-elect has spent months attempting to get his conviction overturned. On Monday, a judge rejected Trump’s bid to have his conviction dismissed on the grounds of the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity.

Prosecutors have indicated that they would be open to delaying any sentencing until the end of Trump’s second term. He cannot be jailed while president.

Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes, so Trump’s conviction in New York state would require the governor’s sign-off.

Meanwhile, in another bid to get the case thrown out, Trump’s lawyers claimed earlier this month to have received evidence of “grave juror misconduct.”

Trump’s lawyers did not disclose what the misconduct in question was in a Dec. 3 letter unsealed by the court Tuesday, according to NBC News—but that didn’t stop Trump attorneys Todd Blanche and Emile Bove from asking that the case be dismissed.

“This behavior is completely unacceptable and it demonstrates without question that the verdicts in this case are as unreliable as DA Bragg’s promise to protect Manhattanites from violent crime,” the reportedly pair wrote.

In a reply to the letter, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office described the misconduct allegations as “vague” and said that their summary of the situation, which was not made public, “contains inaccuracies.”

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