I heard that McConnell threatened Trump with voting to impeach him if he dared to pardon either one.
Have read the same and have no doubt it was true. He may even have been threatened with more than impeachment, maybe even assassination.
Which is exactly why he should have done it. The deep-state in all its forms and agents in DC had been at total-war with Trump for 5 years. He could have dropped a MOAB political bomb on them.
Why would that have mattered in the latter part of January? Trump filled his pardon list with druggies and rappers.
Yes, I remember that. And they impeached him anyway!
So we got pardons for Kwame Kilpatrick, Rod Blagojevich, and a roster full of Wall Street swindlers instead.