Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy reinforced his pledge to pardon President Trump, saying it would be in the best interest of the country to "move forward."

Ramaswamy was challenged to defend Trump after Biden hatchet man Jack Smith filed additional charges in the classified documents case, including new counts of obstruction for an alleged attempt to delete security camera footage.

Ramaswamy's pledge

The new indictment is an example of a "a crime that would not have existed but for the existence of an investigation," Ramaswamy told CNN.

Ramaswamy said it would be divisive and inappropriate to pursue such spurious "process" charges against an American president.

"This is not specific to Trump," he said. "I think that the general norm in our Justice Department is you should not convict somebody of a process crime when there was no actual underlying crime."

Political persecution

Ramaswamy has grabbed the spotlight with his charismatic delivery and unapologetic defense of Trump against what many see as a dangerous, and terrifying, escalation in political lawfare.

Trump is facing an unprecedented blizzard of federal and state indictments that Trump and most Republicans see as a coordinated witch hunt to derail his campaign.

While most of Trump's primary challengers have deployed broad attacks on a weaponized justice system, none have been as vocal as Ramaswamy about pardoning Trump, Joe Biden's chief rival.

Ramaswamy has repeatedly justified pardoning Trump as a matter of principle, saying it undermines national unity and America's system of government to jail political opponents.

"I would pardon him. I intend to be our next president, and yes, I do believe I will move us forward. I believe one of the right ways to do that is pardon the former president of the United States from what is clearly a politicized persecution," he told CNN.

DeSantis weighs in

Trump's other challengers have been more cautious about defending the Republican frontrunner against political "persecution."

Top Trump rival Ron DeSantis has signaled he would consider a pardon, but he has suggested the charges are self-inflicted and a distraction from the issues that matter.

"If the election becomes a referendum on what document was left by the toilet at Mar-a-Lago, we are not going to win," he said.