Bernie Sanders says Trump's pardons are part of a ‘broken and racist’ system

President condemned for pardoning white-collar criminals while ‘poor and working-class kids’ remain imprisoned

Donald Trump's decision to pardon and commute the sentences of several high-profile prisoners shows that America's criminal justice system is not fit for purpose, according to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.

“Today, Trump granted clemency to tax cheats, Wall Street crooks, billionaires, and corrupt government officials,” he wrote.

“Meanwhile thousands of poor and working-class kids sit in jail for nonviolent drug convictions.

“This is what a broken and racist criminal justice system looks like.”

President Trump on Tuesday pardoned seven people and commuted the sentences of four others. While the list includes two women of colour convicted of drug offences, several of the others are white-collar criminals with connections to Trump and his associates.

Among them is disgraced former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was imprisoned in 2012 for trying to sell Barack Obama’s vacant Senate seat. In 2010 he appeared on The Celebrity Apprentice, which Trump then hosted.

Several Republican lawmakers from Mr Blagojevich’s home state condemned president Trump’s decision: “Not once has [Mr Blagojevich] shown any remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters.

“As our state continues to grapple with political corruption, we shouldn’t let those who breached the public trust off the hook.”

Also on the list is Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner who once served as chauffeur and bodyguard to Rudy Giuliani – president Trump’s attorney.

Mr Sanders’s campaign platform includes numerous measures to reform the US’s criminal justice system, including banning for-profit prisons, guaranteeing a “Prisoner Bill of Rights” and cutting the national prison population in half by reforming various sentencing laws.

He is currently leading the Democratic field in national polls by a wide margin. In the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal survey of Democratic primary voters, he leads his nearest rival, Joe Biden, by 27 points to 15.

However, the poll also found that Sanders’s age, health and self-identified socialism could be serious liabilities with the national electorate.