pardon clemency

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SEE PARDON TRUMP COUP NOW INCLUDES JAN 6 HOSTAGES

aha authoritarian: carrot, stick and pardons

rumors of pardons for insurrectionists

see dec 21 WH mtg

gaetz war criminals? one for him too

evil b/c perversion of moderation? correction? corruption

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no lnx

'He's not innocent': Republican denounces Trump's pardon of Chinese billionaire

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an announcement regarding his administration's policies against cartels and human trafficking, from the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

:{Carl GibsonOctober 23, 2025 |

President Donald Trump recently announced he was officially pardoning Changpeng Zhao, who is the former CEO of cryptocurrency company Binance. One member of his party is now publicly condemning the act.

Politico reported Thursday that after Trump pardoned Zhao — a Chinese-born Canadian resident who is ranked as the 21st richest person in the world with a net worth in excess of $87 billion — Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said it sent "a bad signal."

"I don’t like it,” said Tillis, who is not running for another term next year. "He was convicted. He’s not innocent."

Zhao pleaded guilty in November of 2023 to money laundering charges and agreed to pay $4 billion in penalties. Then-Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said after the plea deal that Binance "allowed money to flow to terrorists, cybercriminals, and child abusers through its platform." Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said at the time that Zhao's company "gave sanctioned customers unfettered access to American capital and financial services."

However, Zhao also had personal ties to the Trump family. As the Wall Street Journal reported, Binance supported the Trump Organization's World Liberty Financial cryptocurrency venture headed by Donald Trump Jr., which has led to the president's personal net wealth spiking significantly since the start of his second term.

The Senate is currently discussing market structure legislation aimed at regulating the cryptocurrency industry. Some Democrats are arguing for provisions in the bill that would prevent the president and his family from profiting from its crypto business, though Republicans are likely to reject them.

“It’s absolutely corrupt what this president is doing, and none of us should be surprised,” Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) told Politico. “What we’re trying to do in market structure is to keep the Binances of the world outside of the United States market.”

Click here to read Politico's full report.

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an no lnx

'I don't know — he was recommended': Trump struggles to justify latest pardon

:{U.S. President Donald Trump gestures during an announcement regarding his administration's policies against cartels and human trafficking, from the State Dining Room at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., October 23, 2025.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst}:

David BadashOctober 23, 2025

Just after pardoning the founder of Binance, President Donald Trump struggled to explain his decision — appearing unfamiliar with both the recipient and the legal issues surrounding the case that led to his conviction.

“President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao,” The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, “the convicted founder of the crypto exchange Binance, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family’s own crypto company.”

Asked on Thursday why he chose to issue the pardon, and if it had anything to do with Zhao’s involvement with the Trump family’s crypto business, the President responded, “Who is that?”

READ MORE: ‘Amateur Historian’ Mike Johnson Hails Trump’s Ballroom as ‘Greatest’ White House Upgrade

“The founder of Binance,” the reporter replied.

“The recent one, yes,” Trump said. “I believe we’re talking about the same person, ’cause I do pardon a lot of people.”

“I don’t know — he was recommended by a lot of people,” Trump continued. “A lot of people say that — are you talking about the crypto person?”

“Yes.”

“A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything,” the President declared. “He served four months in jail, and they say that he was not guilty of anything, that what he did —” Trump said before the reporter interjected.

“Well,” Trump responded, “you don’t know much about crypto, you know nothing about, you know nothing about nothing. You’re fake news.”

READ MORE: ‘Racist on Its Face’: Top Democrat Blasts Trump’s ‘Truly Vile’ New Policy

“But let me just tell you that he was,” Trump said, “somebody that, as I was told, I don’t know him, I don’t believe I’ve ever met him. But I’ve been told, a lot of support. He had a lot of support, and they said that what he did is not even a crime.”

“It wasn’t a crime, that he was persecuted by the Biden administration, and so I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people.”

The Wall Street Journal also reported that a “pardon will likely pave the way for Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, to return to the U.S. after the company pleaded guilty in 2023 to violating U.S. anti-money-laundering requirements and was barred from operating in the country.”

— (@)

READ MORE: ‘Pay to Play’: Trump Ballroom Donors List Draws Concern and Condemnation

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YMAIL 1 25

...I’ve gotten word from inside the Biden team that we were able to push my pardon to the very top. In fact, it was discussed for days by the President’s top advisors. I was told Chevron’s lawyers fought with a bizarre intensity to kill it.

Why in hell were Chevron lawyers allowed in the White House to fight a human rights lawyer seeking a pardon?This is proof of the immense power our campaign has built – and how we pose a serious financial risk to Chevron.

On the day Mr. Biden denied my pardon more than 500,000 people around the world engaged with our social media posts. To put it bluntly, this scares the hell out of Chevron.

I see the result as a capitulation by Mr. Biden to corporate power at the expense of the planet and the rule of law. His decision was extremely disappointing – and also an illustration of the lack of conviction to fight for justice at the top levels of the Democratic Party.

...

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President Donald Trump’s January 6 pardons mark the culmination of the MAGA media’s yearslong campaign to remove the stain from his supporters’ violent assault on the U.S. Capitol — and for their own culpability in that attempted coup.

On the first day of his second term, Trump is apparently giving clemency to every participant in the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Speaking to reporters while signing executive orders in the Oval Office, he said he would be signing full pardons for “approximately 1,500 people” while providing six commutations. He appears to be wiping the slate clean for all of what he has ludicrously termed the “J6 hostages,” including hundreds convicted of violent assaults on law enforcement. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio, who was convicted of crimes including seditious conspiracy for his role in the attack and sentenced to 22 years in prison, is getting out tonight.

The world watched four years ago as thousands of Trumpists broke through ranks of law enforcement, stormed into the Capitol, and sent into hiding the members of Congress who had assembled to certify the electoral vote. That mob — summoned to Washington, D.C., by Trump and incited by his lies and those of the right-wing media that his reelection had been stolen — was the final salvo in a multifaceted plot by Trump and his allies to keep him in office following his defeat at the ballot box.

A broad, bipartisan consensus formed in real time that Trump was responsible for a travesty. And the right-wing media and tech elite agreed, denouncingTrump and calling for consequences, while Rupert Murdoch proposed cutting him off from the support of his media empire.

But while Fox News stars publicly described the assailants in the immediate aftermath as “criminals” who should be “arrested and prosecuted” and do “jail time,” they also validated the mob’s concerns — and only in private did they point the finger at the president himself.

That initial reticence was a signal that the January 6 consensus was fragile — and indeed, as nearly 1,600 participants faced charges over the months and years that followed, Trump’s allies at Fox and elsewhere in the right-wing press went to work dismantling the idea that they had done anything wrong.

A coterie of Trumpists led by Tucker Carlson sought to downplay the extent of the day’s horrors and substitute a revisionist counternarrative that melded decontextualized video from the day with naked conspiracy-mongering to declare the insurrectionists the victims of a false-flag operation perpetuated by the federal government.

That twisted take drew initial resistance from more responsible members of the right-wing media, but over time, it became dominant on the right. Evidence of the day’s depravities and Trump’s culpability for them were hidden from right-wing audiences, Republicans who sought to expose them were purged, and efforts to hold Trump legally accountable met with bitter denunciations.

The right’s pro-insurrection turn was most beneficial to Trump, helping him rise to the GOP presidential nomination and back to the presidency four years after his coup attempt. But as he described the mob’s participants as “hostages” and floated pardons for their deeds, right-wing personalities who had once denounced the insurrectionists began describing them as the victims of politicized prosecutions and calling for clemency.

And now they’ve gotten their way, rewarding those who tried to tear down American democracy — and making it more likely that such a horror will again be visited upon us some day soon. And the same propaganda machine that was able to turn a nightmare that unfolded in front of all of our eyes into a story of Trumpist victims is gearing up for four more years of lies on Trump’s behalf.

===

proud boys parade at inaug

List of people pardoned or granted clemency by the president of the United States - Wikipedia

on January 20, 2025, Trump issued roughly 1,500 pardons and 14 commutations to people charged in connection to the January 6 United States Capitol attack.^[109] This included former leader of the Proud BoysEnrique Tarrio and founder of the Oath Keepers Stewart Rhodes.^[110]

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1 25 no vids

wASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Monday issued roughly 1,500 pardons and commuted the sentences of 14 of his supporters in connection with the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, when thousands of them stormed the building amid his false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against him.

Trump commuted the sentences of individuals associated with the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, who were convicted of seditious conspiracy. He then issued "a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021," a category that included people who assaulted law enforcement officers.

Capitol riot Trump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators

"This is a big one," Trump said in the Oval Office while signing the document, adding, "We hope they come out tonight, frankly."

The family of Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader convicted of seditious conspiracy, said in a media statement Tuesday that he was released late Monday from FCI Pollock, a medium-security federal prison in Louisiana, and expected to arrive in Miami on Tuesday.

Tarrio was serving 22 years in federal prison after he was convicted of seditious conspiracy.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who was speaker of the House during the attack, called Trump's actions "an outrageous insult to our justice system" and the law enforcement officers who protected the Capitol that day.

"It is shameful that the President has decided to make one of his top priorities the abandonment and betrayal of police officers who put their lives on the line to stop an attempt to subvert the peaceful transfer of power," she said in a statement. "Despite the President’s decision, we must always remember the extraordinary courage and valor of the law enforcement heroes who stood in the breach and ensured that democracy survived on that dark day.”

The pardons fulfill one of Trump's central campaign promises.

Immediately after the Jan. 6 attack, Trump sought to distance himself from the attack, saying those who broke the law should be held accountable. But over the next few years, a new narrative emerged, and Trump soon began openly signaling his support for Jan. 6 rioters, calling them "hostages."

The unprecedented attack on the Capitol, when the peaceful transfer of power was interrupted, was one of the most significant moments in American history.

It resulted in the largest FBI investigation ever, with criminal charges against more than 1,500 people and criminal convictions against more than 1,100 defendants. Many low-level riot defendants were sentenced to probationary periods after having been convicted of misdemeanor offenses, like unlawful parading inside the Capitol.

But hundreds of others who committed serious felonies, such as assaulting police with deadly or dangerous weapons, got significant prison sentences.

At the time Trump issued the pardons, there were about 700 defendants who either never received prison sentences or had already completed their sentences, meaning pardons or commutations would have little practical impact on them, beyond restoring voting rights and gun rights for those who were convicted of felonies.

More than 600 people were sentenced to incarceration, but only a small fraction of them are still behind bars. Many of those who are in the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons were convicted of violent attacks on police officers protecting the Capitol during an assault in which Jan. 6 defendants were armed with firearms, stun guns, flagpoles, fire extinguishers, bike racks, batons, a metal whip, office furniture, pepper spray, bear spray, a tomahawk ax, a hatchet, a hockey stick, knuckle gloves, a baseball bat, a massive “Trump” billboard, “Trump” flags, a pitchfork, pieces of lumber, crutches and even an explosive device.

More than 140 police officers were injured and several Trump supporters died during the attack, including one who was shot trying to breach the House Speaker's Lobby and another who died in the middle of a brutal battle at the lower west tunnel, where some of the worst violence of the day took place.

IFrame Content

Trump did not speak about Jan. 6 in his inauguration address, in which he said he hoped he would someday be remembered as a "peacemaker and unifier."

But shortly thereafter, he spoke to an overflow crowd of supporters in the Capitol and addressed the Jan. 6 defendants, once again airing his baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was "rigged."

"I was going to talk about the J6 hostages," Trump said in that speech, using the term "hostages" to refer to criminal defendants, including hundreds who admitted to their criminal offenses under oath and others who were convicted by either judges or juries of their peers. "But you’ll be happy because, you know, it’s action, not words, that count. And you’re going to see a lot of action on the J6 hostages."

An attorney who worked on Jan. 6 cases as a federal prosecutor told NBC News that it was always possible that Trump would return to power and pardon Capitol riot defendants but that the Justice Department "pressed ahead anyway" because "political considerations should not play any part in the Justice Department’s evaluation of facts and law, which showed that these were crimes — some of them terribly serious crimes — that warranted prosecution.”

The source said that they and, they suspected, many of their colleagues "have no regrets about having pursued these cases" and that the effort remains highly consequential because it created "a definitive, public factual record of what actually transpired" on Jan. 6.

"These cases assured police officers and civilians who were assaulted at the Capitol that there were people, and there was a Department of Justice, who recognized what they endured and sacrificed. These cases led to hundreds of defendants' acknowledging their crimes by pleading guilty in open court and hundreds of others' being found guilty at trial," the source said. "The work is likely be terminated before it can be fully completed, most significantly by the abrupt termination of the special counsel’s work. But the record stands

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'QAnon Shaman' vows to 'buy some guns' after Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons

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The national Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), which endorsed President Donald Trump in the 2024 election, isn't interested in discussing the 47th president's mass pardons of insurrectionists who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.

HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte reached out to the FOP after Trump announced he was pardoning roughly 1,500 people charged and convicted in relation to the deadly siege of the Capitol, in which roughly 140 police officers were injured while battling rioters. Those injured during the insurrection included both members of the U.S. Capitol Police Department along with Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officers.

"We don't have a statement about that," the FOP told Dáte, who tweeted that he specifically asked the union its thoughts on Trump "releasing HUNDREDS of violent felons who assaulted cops."

Trump's pardons included both those convicted of lower-level offenses like unlawful parading, and those convicted of seditious conspiracy (the most serious charge). The rioters who have been released from prison include high-profile defendants like Guy Reffitt, who brought a gun to the Capitol, and who was turned in by his own son.

Some of the officers who were attacked and testified publicly in the trials against insurrectionists received preemptive pardons from former President Joe Biden hours before Trump was sworn in. Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, who provided testimony to the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, was among those Biden pardoned. He recently shared a screenshot of his call log with former Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, which showed automated alerts from the Department of Justice letting him know that defendants he testified against have since been released from prison.

"The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense," Biden stated after issuing the pardons. "Our nation owes these public servants a debt of gratitude for their tireless commitment to our country."

Click here to read Dáte's tweet.

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Biden commute peltier

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During the final hours of his presidency — with President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration only hours away — Joe Biden announced his last-minute preemptive pardons, making it clear that he was determined to shield those he pardoned from frivolous prosecutions under the new administration.

The pardons included Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Gen. Mark Milley, ex-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and former members of the January 6 Select Committee, including ex-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and ex-Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois).

Biden, in his announcement, stated, "Our nation relies on dedicated, selfless public servants every day. They are the lifeblood of our democracy." In certain cases, some have even been threatened with criminal prosecutions, including General Mark A. Milley, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and members and staff of the Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol…. These public servants have served our nation with honor and distinction and do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions."

The outgoing president emphatically added that "the issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that any individual engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense."

On X, formerly Twitter, far-right Trump supporters were quick to attack Biden for the pardons, from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) to Fox News' Laura Ingraham.

Greene tweeted, "Pardoned because they are guilty of CRIMES. Never forget what they did and who the Democrats are. The mask is completely OFF."

Ingraham posted, "With the Fauci and Milley pardons, Biden shows that he is the one who will violate any norm. Good riddance to him, his puppet masters and all those who enabled The Lie. ("Biden's as sharp as ever.") A new dawn is here!"

Infowars host Alex Jones remarked, "Biden issues 11th hour pardons of globalist crime syndicate members! The DEEP STATE is running scared!"

Turning Point USA's Charlie Kirk wrote, "Biden just preemptively pardoned Fauci, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Mark Milley and all staff of the J6 Committee. They know at noon everything changes. This is a provocation. Shock and awe time. High noon is almost here."

Kylie Jane Kremer, executive director of Women for America First, tweeted: "F**K YOU to the Deep State & the Staffers who are lying & pretending Joe Biden is pardoning anyone. Joe Biden DOESN'T HAVE THE MENTAL CAPACITY TO PARDON ANYONE! An investigation needs to be opened on these treasonous pigs who just pardoned the J6 Committee, Milley, & Fauci TODAY."

But other X users have applauded the preemptive pardons.

The conservative Republicans Against Trump posted a statement from Milley.

The ex-Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman stated, "After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights. I do not want to put my family, my friends, and those with whom I served through the resulting distraction, expense, and anxiety."

CNN's Dana Bash tweeted that Fauci said he is "very appreciative" of the preemptive pardon he received and added, "As (Biden) said, we did nothing wrong, but the baseless accusations and threats are real for me and my family."

MeidasTouch's Ron Filipkowski argued, "I personally am not a fan of the preemptive pardons for many reasons, but I will say the manic, unhinged and furious reactions of MAGA Republicans, which include calling for state court prosecutions and MORE congressional investigations, proves Biden's point on why he did it."

KrassenCast's Ed Krassenstein tweeted, "If you’re upset about Biden pardoning individuals Trump is likely to target with a weaponized justice system, let’s not forget what happened during Trump’s first term. Trump literally used his pardon power to reward people for trying to obstruct a criminal investigation into himself. Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, who was convicted of lying to the FBI during its investigation into TRUMP."

Krassenstein continued, "He pardoned Paul Manafort, who was convicted of witness tampering and obstructing the DOJ's investigation into Trump. And he pardoned Steve Bannon, who was charged with defrauding Trump’s own supporters through a fundraising scheme."

Liberal firebrand and former MSNBC host Keith Olbermann posted, "Breaking: Biden preemptively pardons Liz Cheney, Fauci, Milley, J6 officers Good. Screws Trump, overshadows his inauguration, ruins his day, protects American heroes."

Olbermann also tweeted, "Should pardon millions including all media. Should pardon Megyn Kelly for once pissing Trump off. Pardon everybody It ain't Sun Tzu here but when your opponent goes farcical, out farce him."

alternet-logo

Jailed ‘Tiger King’ Joe Exotic has plans for central role in Trump administration

By State of Florida - https://nypost.com/2020/03/26/tiger-king-star-joe-exotic-files-94m-lawsuit-wants-presidential-pardon/, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=88825216

Alexandria JacobsonNovember 15, 2024

In the final hours before President-elect Donald Trump left office in January 2021, “Joe Exotic” of “Tiger King” fame prepared for a presidential pardon from his two-decade federal prison sentence — with a limo and fans awaiting his release from confinement.

Trump didn’t come through with a pardon for the “Tiger King” — real name Joseph Maldonado. But as Trump prepares to return to the Oval Office in January, the star of the hit Netflix show is hopeful he will be a free man by April 2025, at the latest.

“Sean Hannity and a lot of people told me that I was on the pardon list, that they've seen the pardon list, and January 6 happened, and everything got screwed up, and then I got left behind,” Maldonado told Raw Story in a phone interview from Federal Medical Center, Fort Worth in Texas.

This time will be different because Trump has a “good start already,” Maldonado said, noting that not only has Trump been in executive office previously, but he’s also wasted no time in naming his cabinet picks.

So far, Trump has nominated eight picks for his cabinet from his group of high-profile MAGA supporters, including Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) as attorney general, Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) as ambassador to the United Nations and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security.

Maldonado said he wishes Trump would give him a cabinet position, too, as director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

“I think I could save the taxpayers billions of dollars and get a little more honesty within that service,” Maldonado said. “We're spending billions of dollars on vehicles, staff, everything to regulate animals that are already regulated by international treaties.”

Maldonado said in the more than 20 years he ran the Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma at the center of the 2020 Netflix documentary series, “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness,” he never heard from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Rather, he was licensed under the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Animal Welfare Act, he said.

“In 23 years of owning that zoo, I bred, I sold, I euthanized, I exhibited, and I let people play with baby tigers. 23 years,” Maldonado said. “Federal Fish and Wildlife never one time asked me how many I had, where the babies that are born went to, where any of the dead bodies went to, or what we've done with the dead bodies when one dies and we had to euthanize one, or anything. They never wanted to know how many tigers I had.”

Trump's spokespeople did not immediately respond to Raw Story's request for comment.

Maldonado is serving a 21-year sentence for two counts of murder-for-hire related to alleged plans to kill his big cat rescue foe, Carole Baskin, along with 19 other counts of wildlife crime related to the alleged killing of five tigers and the illegal sale of tiger cubs, violating the Lacey Act, prohibiting illegal wildlife trade, and the Endangered Species Act, according to the Department of Justice.

Maldonado maintains his innocence and is awaiting a response from an appeals court in Denver, he said. Maldonado said he expects to hear a decision by March or April 2025, so even if Trump or President Joe Biden don’t pardon him — and he said “they let me down four years ago" — Maldonado is hopeful to be out of prison at least through the appeals process.

Presidential aspirations

The “Tiger King” ran for president himself this year as a Democrat, suspending his campaign fundraising in May, Raw Story reported. He previously ran for president and governor of Oklahoma as a libertarian but switched parties due to too much party in-fighting, he said.

He also wanted to run as a Democrat in order to debate Biden about the economy and get answers about not following through on “campaign promises about justice reform and prison reform,” Maldonado said.

“I'm running as a Democrat because first someone has to become a new style of Democrat that meets in the middle like pro choice and pro 2nd amendment and tuff [sic] on violent crime but not so harsh on nonviolent offenders except sex offenders. Our prisons are over full of small time drug offenders while sex offenders and violent criminals go home first,” wrote Maldonado to Raw Story in a September 2023 letter on lined notebook paper with erratic capitalization.

Maldonado said despite running as a Democrat he ultimately endorsed Trump because “he was the strongest of all of them to keep us out of World War III and get the economy back on track, so I would have voted for him if I’d had the right to vote.”

Still, Trump's sweep of all swing states surprised Maldonado, along with the fact that Trump was the first convicted felon elected president.

“Now that Trump is a convicted felon, even if they drop his charges, he still got convicted. That will never leave an American citizen's mind. He was convicted, and America still loves him. They voted him in overwhelmingly,” Maldonado said. “I think people nowadays can look past the broken system and see through the smoke screens, and that's what I'm hoping President Biden or President Trump will do sooner than later is look through the BS and the smoke screens in my case.”

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Donald Trump was hardly the first U.S. president to issue controversial pardons.

A month after President Richard Nixon's resignation, President Gerald R. Ford granted him a full and unconditional pardonfor any Watergate-related crimes he might have committed — a move that Democratic strategists used against Ford in the 1976 election. The 140 pardons that President Bill Clinton issuedon January 20, 2021 during the final hours of his presidency received plenty of scrutiny.

But to Donald Trump's critics, the controversial pardons that he issued during his four years in the White House were uniquely troubling.

Trump pardoned a long list of MAGA Republicans and loyalists who were either convicted of serious crimes or pled guilty to them, including "War Room" host Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort (Trump's 2016 campaign manager), veteran GOP operative Roger Stone, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.

In a report published on December 2, Washington Post reporters Beth Reinhard, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Clara Ence Morse describe the prominent role that pardoned Trump loyalists are playing in his 2024 campaign.

The journalists report, "Donald Trump's clemency orders forgave more white-collar crimes than any other type of offense — tax scofflaws, health-care fraudsters, corrupt politicians and Ponzi schemers all benefited, The Post review found. Several had donated to Trump's campaigns or had the resources to do so in the future. The Post found 26 clemency recipients or their immediate family members have contributed to a Trump campaign account or a pro-Trump political committee. That means more than 1 out of 10 of the people who received pardons and commutations gave money either before they received clemency, afterward or in both periods, for a total of nearly $1.8 million."

According to Reinhard, Roig-Franzia and Morse, "Much of that tally comes from real estate developer Charles Kushner, the father of Trump's son-in-law, who pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns, witness tampering and lying to the Federal Election Commission and served time in prison in 2005 and 2006. He was pardoned in late 2020; he gave $1 million to a pro-Trump super PAC this year."...

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Trump issued a long list of pardons and commutations to right-wing allies when he was in office. One of them came in 2019, when Trump granted a commutation to Ted Suhl — the Arkansas-based owner of the Lord's Ranch who had been convicted on federal bribery charges in 2016.

The Lord's Ranch, a youth treatment center, closed after Suhl's conviction. Now, Suhl is, according to the Associated Press (AP), facing a lawsuit from former Lord's Ranch residents who allege they suffered "systematic and widespread" sexual abuse there.

"The lawsuit against Suhl and others claims the unnamed residents were victims of repeated sexual abuse and rape by an employee of the facility, describing the abuse in graphic detail," AP reports. "The employee, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, had not been charged by police with abuse."

The lawsuit alleges, "Children at the Lord's lived in constant fear, knowing that they were alone in a remote, unfamiliar environment far from home and at the complete mercy of a sadistic staff. For many children, survival meant compliance with the physical and sexual abuse."

Suhl was sentenced to seven years in federal prison after his conviction, but he was released three years later after Trump commuted his sentence to time served. Trump, however, didn't grand Suhl a full pardon.

*Read The Associated Press' full report at this link.

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Twice-convicted fraudster pardoned by Trump facing federal fraud charges again: DOJ

Lakewood, New Jersey resident Eliyahu Weinstein is among the many people who received federal pardons or commutations from former President Donald Trump — a group that also includes veteran GOP operatives Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, "War Room" host Steve Bannon, and former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn. Weinstein was convicted of fraud twice and was sentenced to prison after defrauding investors out of $230 million, but Trump commuted his sentence.

Now, two and one-half years after Trump left office, Weinstein is facing fraud charges again.

On Wednesday, July 19, federal prosecutors for the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Weinstein and four other men had been charged in connection with an alleged fraud scheme. The Associated Press reports that the defendants are "accused of defrauding dozens of investors out of $35 million."

READ MORE: Nikki Haley: 'I would be inclined' to pardon Donald Trump

According to AP, "The five are charged with wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct justice, and each could face up to 25 years in prison. Philip Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, said Weinstein used a fake name and falsely promised access to deals involving scarce medical supplies, baby formula and first-aid kits supposedly destined for wartime Ukraine."

The other defendants in the case are Aryeh Bromberg, Shlomo Erez, Joel Wittels and Alaa Hattab, 34. The case has an international element: Erez lives in Israel, while Hattab is from Ottawa, Canada.

READ MORE: Why Bannon’s pardon from Trump is powerless to stop prosecution in New York: report

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mariana Alfaro @ The Washington Post: Trump vows pardons, government apology to Capitol rioters if he’s elected.

https://www.justsecurity.org/77681/mark-meadows-timeline-the-chief-of-staff-and-schemes-to-overturn-2020-election/

Nine highlights from the Timeline below:

1. :{:{Meadows and Giuliani created a “parallel track” to raise election fraud claims}:

}:2. Trump campaign staff followed up on :{:{“Meadows’ theory” that tens of thousands of “illegal aliens” voted in Arizona}:

}::{3. Meadows helped introduce President Trump to DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, who was plotting to oust the acting attorney general and use the Justice Department to overturn election results in Georgia

}:4. Meadows expressed upset, along with Trump, in response to Attorney General Barr’s having told the Associated Press there was no election fraud:{ that could have affected the outcome in the election

}::{5. Meadows made a surprise visit to Georgia where he met with the Secretary of State’s lead elections investigator. Trump called her the next day on Meadow’s suggestion and in the call urged her to find fraud in Fulton County

}:6. Meadows arranged and participated in the call in which Trump asked Georgia Secretary of State Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes”:{; and during the call Meadows asked the Georgia officials to share voting data even after they told him they could not because it was protected by law

}::{7. In several communications with the Justice Department—in violation of White House and DOJ contacts policies—Meadows pressured the Department to investigate baseless allegations of election fraud

}::{:{8. Then-Acting Secretary of Defense’s chief of staff Kash Patel says he spoke to Meadows “nonstop” on Jan. 6}:

}:9. In his final days in office, Trump hoped to issue a preemptive pardon for Meadows, Giuliani and possibly himself....

an 8 22

https://www.alternet.org/2022/08/fbi-matt-gaetz-stone/

A former official for the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) recently compared members of TrumpWorld to the mafia.

During an appearance on MSNBC, Frank Figliuzzi, who worked as an assistant director in the FBI's counterintelligence division, shared his opinion of The Washington Post's recent report offering details about a "hot-mic conversation" that took place between Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and longtime Trump ally, Roger Stone.

The report highlighted a 2019 recording whereGaetz "repeatedly assured Stone that 'the boss' would likely grant him clemency if he were convicted." Figliuzzi also recalled how Stone said he was hoping the Florida lawmaker and "dozens of others" would help him circumvent his legal woes.

"It's a much larger conspiracy than I think even those of us who followed it every day could have imagined," Figliuzzi said.

The former FBI official also insists that the conversations between Gaetz and Stone appear to echo a "we're all in this together" ideology and sheds light on how members of TrumpWorld function. According to Figliuzzi, it's similar to the mafia mentality.

"You know, La Cosa Nostra, the Italian Mafia, translates as, 'This Thing of Ours,'" he said. "That's all I keep hearing here: 'We're all in this together.'"

He also noted that the mob wiretaps he'd previously heard sound relatively similar to the conversations between Gaetz and Stone. "And they're part of a criminal enterprise," he added. "It's a criminal organization. They know it. They know they're screwed with regard to legality, and they know the only way out is for the boss to get them out of it."

Business Insider also highlighted other sections of hot-mic conversation that alluded to mafia-style rhetoric.

At one point, Stone "was also heard telling Gaetz that he might have to "appeal to the big man" because most jurors surveyed for his trial despised him." The news outlet added that Gaetz "was then heard agreeing with Stone, saying Stone was 'fucked' where the trial was concerned. The congressman added, however, that he believed Stone wouldn't go to prison because the 'big guy' would not let that happen."

an 7 22

it not quite clear what, exactly, former President Donald Trump was doing and privately saying inside the White House during the five long, violent hours when more than 2,000 rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021.

It’s a key timeline that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol is set to explore on July 21, 2022 during its latest – and possibly last – public hearing.

At the heart of the issue is Trump’s precise engagement, if any, with the rioters and several fringe nationalist militia groups, including the Proud Boys, Three Percenters and Oath Keepers, that stormed the Capitol.

Amy Cooter, a senior lecturer in sociology at Vanderbilt University, embedded with militia groups, mostly in Michigan, from 2008 through 2012. Knowing who these groups are – and how they have changed over time – makes it easier to understand the Jan. 6 attacks, Cooter said.

“Fifteen years ago, people thought of these groups as being niche, crazy people. That’s not really what I saw in my fieldwork – I saw people who were just more willing to be open about their political perspectives than maybe more mainstream Republicans were at the time. It seemed to me, both then and now, that their concerns resonate with a broad swath of the population,” Cooter said in a recent interview.

We asked Cooter to explain what drives these groups and their complicated relationship with Trump and the government.

What is your understanding of how Trump is seen by these nationalist groups?

Traditionally, militia groups have been very opposed to the federal government, regardless of whether we’re talking about Democrats or Republicans. However, with Trump, they really found sort of a mouthpiece. Not all of them truly liked him, but they really want somebody who speaks out against immigration and has a nationalistic and isolationist perspective. Trump gave them a sense of legitimacy. But there didn’t seem to be too many formal connections, as far as we know.

How does leadership and hierarchy work within these groups?

Many of these groups present themselves as top-down organizations with centralized leadership and then different state-level structures. But the degree to which that is reality varies enormously, especially with the Three Percenters but also with the Oath Keepers.

There are groups that kind of fit the stereotypical top-down model that make it easy to activate them for action. There are other groups who maybe were completely oblivious to this Jan. 6 plan.

What do you mean by activate? That sounds similar to language Trump used during a presidential debate in September 2020, to “stand back and stand by.”

Militias always see themselves as prepared for action. Usually, this means they’re prepared to defend themselves and their communities in the event of a natural disaster, or some kind of invasion. But as we saw leading up to Jan. 6, some of these groups were clearly planning more than just a defensive stance.

What was Trump getting from these groups, and what were they getting from Trump?

They get from Trump this idea that someone finally represents their interests, someone finally sees the state of the nation as they do, even though not all of them completely agree with him. They see it as an opportunity to push things in the direction that they would prefer.

I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that Trump sees an opportunity for a private armyfrom them. In 2018, he pardoned the Bundy ranchers, who were arrested for arson on federal land. Not a lot of people paid attention to this, but that was a signal to these groups that he had their back and would expect them to have his back in the future.

I think that Jan. 6 is really kind of proof of that, that he has activated people who in some cases do have military or police experience.

How have you seen these groups evolve over time, since you began researching them?

Before Trump, there had been very clear-cut tensions between different groups. That boundary has broken down substantially, and most groups have been pushed more toward an extreme than used to be true – in no small part because of how Trump and others in his administration legitimized the core fears that different groups had about being invaded.

Since Jan. 6, the groups as a whole have declined in size. Many of these people were really surprised at how Jan. 6 played out and were quite embarrassed –or they were appalled that it didn’t go far enough.

Now, many people have taken a step back even from these groups altogether. But the folks that have stuck around continue to be quite radical, and probably even more radical than they were before. Especially thinking about what is going to happen with the midterm elections, we are going to see a lot of invigoration.

Amy Cooter, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Vanderbilt University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

ref

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-oregon-standoff-trump/trump-pardons-oregon-ranchers-who-inspired-refuge-standoff-idUSKBN1K021Q

no lnx pix

U.S. NEWS

JULY 10, 2018 UPDATED 4 YEARS AGO

Trump pardons Oregon ranchers who inspired refuge standoff

By Jonathan Allen

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned two imprisoned Oregon ranchers whose sentencing on arson convictions sparked the 2016 occupation of a wildlife refuge, part of a long-simmering dispute over federal land policies in the U.S. West.

The armed standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeast Oregon followed a judge’s ruling that sent Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven, back to prison to serve more time after their initial release. Police shot one of the occupiers dead during the 41-day midwinter protest.

The takeover was another flare-up in a decades-old conflict over federal control of millions of acres of public land in the Western United States. In Oregon, about half of all land is controlled by the federal government.

The leaders of the Malheur standoff, including activists Ammon and Ryan Bundy, were cleared of federal charges for their role in the protest in October 2016.

Ammon Bundy on Tuesday called the pardon “long overdue.”

“We went up there to prevent the atrocity from happening to begin with, and if people would have listened to us, the Hammonds wouldn’t have to have gone through this suffering,” Bundy said in a telephone interview.

The pardons are the latest in a series by Trump that have raised questions about whether he is using the presidential power to reward political supporters.

Trump in late May pardoned Dinesh D’Souza,a conservative pundit convicted of campaign finance crimes.Last August he pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who campaigned for Trump before being convicted in a case regarding racial profiling.

“LAWLESS EXTREMISTS”

Dwight Hammond, 76, and Steven, 49, were convicted in 2012 for setting a fire that spread onto public land after years of disputes with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

The Hammonds said they were using standard brush-control and land-management techniques, but the government said that in at least one instance they were trying to hide evidence of their slaughtering a herd of deer.

A U.S. flag covers a sign at the entrance of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge near Burns, Oregon, January 3, 2016. REUTERS/Jim Urquhart

The Hammonds were set to return by airplane to Oregon on Wednesday morning, the Bundy family said in an email. The pair walked out of a federal prison in California about 6-1/2 hours after the pardon was announced, the Oregonian newspaper reported.

Some conservation groups were dismayed at the pardon.

Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Center for Western Priorities, called the Hammonds “lawless extremists.”

“Pardoning the Hammonds sends a dangerous message to America’s park rangers, wildland firefighters, law enforcement officers, and public lands managers,” Rokala said in a statement.

The two men were initially sentenced to less than the legal minimum five-year prison sentence by a judge who thought the minimum too harsh and later released the two, Dwight Hammond after three months and Steven Hammond after a year.

After the government’s appeal in 2016, a different federal judge ordered the pair back to prison to serve the full five years, sparking protests and the refuge occupation.

In a statement on Tuesday, the White House said the decision sentencing the Hammonds to five years in prison was “unjust” and said that the fire had burned only “a small portion” of public land.

“The evidence at trial regarding the Hammonds’ responsibility for the fire was conflicting, and the jury acquitted them on most of the charges,” the statement said.

As of 2018, Dwight Hammond had served about three years in prison and Steven Hammond had served four, according to the White House.

Reporting by Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Gina Cherelus; Editing by Frank McGurty and Leslie Adler

an 6 25/22

Trump told Congressional cronies how to get pardons for aiding his bogus election scheme, GOP Rep. says

Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are panic-tweeting after revelations they sought pardons

Conservative insider denounces Republicans who wanted Trump to provide pardons for their involvement in his election scheme

Mo Brooks texts email to CBS containing instructions from Donald Trump on how to request pardons

perry denied, then proved? 3 more denied?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/23/5-takeaways-jan-6-hearing-trumps-doj-plot/

wapo

June 23, 2022

In the Jan. 6 committee hearing on June 23, witnesses described how President Donald Trump pressured the Justice Department to investigate election fraud. (Video: JM Rieger/The Washington Post, Photo: Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

The Jan. 6 committee on Thursday held its fifth major hearing, this one focused on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Justice Department to help him overturn the election.

The plot was spearheaded within the department by an official named Jeffrey Clark, whose home federal agents searched Wednesday in a significant development that reflects the increasing legal jeopardy faced by Trump’s allies and perhaps Trump himself. Trump at one point considered installing Clark as acting attorney general to further the plot — which prompted mass resignation threats....

The Jan. 6 committee on Thursday held its fifth major hearing, this one focused on President Donald Trump’s pressure campaign on the Justice Department to help him overturn the election.

Timeline: Trump's pressure on the Justice Department to overturn the election

Below, some takeaways from the hearing.

The pardon picture, filled out

In a video presented on June 23, Trump White House officials said that at least five House Republicans asked President Donald Trump for pardons. (Video: The Washington Post, Photo: Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)

The committee has repeatedly previewed evidence that certain key players in Trump’s plot soughtpardons. Last week, one of them was revealed to be Trump lawyer John Eastman, who asked to be put on “the pardon list.” The implication from that email was that there was indeed a list that seemingly might have other names.

The committee built out its own list Thursday, adding several House Republicans to it. Here are the names and the evidence:

Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) — In a Jan. 11 email from Brooks, he said he and Gaetz were suggesting pardons for everyone who objected to the election results in Arizona and Pennsylvania. White House lawyer Eric Herschmann also said he believed that Gaetz had requested a pardon. White House aide John McEntee said Gaetz told him he asked for one from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows. Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to Meadows, also testified to the effort by Brooks and Gaetz, saying that Gaetz had been seeking a pardon “since early December” and that he reached out to her personally.

Days after the Capitol attack and the final attempt to overturn the election, Members of Congress requested pardons.

Five days after the attack on the Capitol, Representative Mo Brooks requested pardons for himself, Representative Gaetz, and others. pic.twitter.com/f0xLm5SKtT

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 23, 2022

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — Hutchinson said that she had heard that Greene had asked the White House counsel’s office for a pardon from deputy counsel Pat Philbin but that Greene hadn’t asked her personally.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) — Hutchinson testified that he requested a pardon.

Perry has flatly denied seeking a pardon, calling it “a shameless, soulless lie,” but Hutchinson said he talked to her directly about it.

Hutchinson also said that Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whom House Republicans tried to put on the committee before Democrats objected, talked with the White House about congressional pardons but that she was unaware of him asking for one.

What John Eastman and ‘the pardon list’ means

Asking for a pardon doesn’t equal admitting guilt,[but in applying you must tell what you did? negates exec priv] and Eastman in particular argued that his request was meant as a precaution. But given how far-fetched this plot was and how often those involved were told their plot was illegal, that fact that people were trying to cover their backsides on the way out is important.

And crucially, some of these requests came even before the plot failed on Jan. 6.

1/6 hearing bombshell

Reacting to a revelation from Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) that several Republican Party lawmakers reportedly went hat in hand to Donald Trump and asked for pardons related to attempts to throw out the results of the 2020 presidential election, former Rep. Charlie Dent (R-PA) predicted they could be in big trouble.

In the midst of the first publicly televised Jan. 6 House committee hearing on the Capitol insurrection, the Wyoming Republican suggested that Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) was one of those lawmakers, telling the national TV audience, "Rep. Scott Perry … has refused to testify here. As you will see, Representative Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after Jan. 6 to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election”

Asked about the accusation by CNN host Jim Sciutto, the former Republican lawmaker went off on a rant about some of his former associates.

"Another significant revelation from the Vice-Chair Liz Cheney yesterday is that several GOP lawmakers sought pardons from then-president Trump after January 6th, presuming, it seems, they had criminal exposure here," host Sciutto asked as CNN identified the four lawmakers as Perry along with Reps. Andy Biggs, Paul Gosar of Arizona, and Mo Brooks of Alabama. "What is your reaction? You're a former sitting Republican member of Congress, to hear that some of your former colleagues were looking for a pardon, felt they needed a pardon."

"It is clear to me they have a guilty mind, they think they may have done things that were illegal and potentially criminal and that's why they sought a preemptive pardon. That's simply astounding to me, one of the member's district was adjacent to mine, Scott Perry, and we all know he had made many outreaches to Jeffrey Clark at the DOJ and it is clear to me, again, that I just can't fathom that a member of Congress would ever seek a pardon, just -- it is really quite a stunning action."

"It really speaks to the idea of criminality that -- those are the only people who seek pardons and the fact that they -- that the actions that they took before or during the events of that day, they know that they -- they did something wrong," he continued. "So wrong that they sought a pardon. I can't imagine any -- most of my colleagues would ever have thought for a second to seek a pardon for anything. So it is clear to me that they know they're on the wrong side of this, and that's why they're trying not to participate in these hearings because they're exposed."

Watch below:

721

Conrad Black, who was pardoned of fraud and obstruction of justice convictions by Trump earlier this year, wrote at Claremont Institute...

The Hill serves up what may just be the most absurd headline in media history

MoC

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/republican-pardons/

On almost every Saturday night for the past four years former judge, Jeanine Pirro, has used her Fox News show to praise and defend President Donald Trump, frequently in a screaming rant. Pirro is close friends with the soon-to-be former president, so it surprised some that her ex-husband's name was not on the list of 143 pardons and commutations Trump released overnight.

That list now stands at 144.

Albert Pirro, Trump's former real estate attorney, has just been granted a full pardon by President Donald Trump, literally with minutes remaining in his term.

Duncan Hunter Full Employment Act w/ end on 5 yr lobby ban

speculation that self pardon or for kids would create desire/nec to test and actually draw fed charges, plus not good for impeachment le deux

https://www.alternet.org/2021/01/trump-pardons-2650034545

early Wednesday morning, the White House announced a slate of President Donald Trump's final official actions in office. Two of these acts represented significant betrayals of his own supporters.

First, and most prominently, Trump pardoned his former campaign chair Steve Bannon. Despite his rocky relationship with Bannon, the president seemed to think the risks of political blowback were worth pardoning his one-time ally. Bannon's pardon is particularly toxic and egregious because he hasn't even been convicted or sentenced yet on his charges, which is usually required before a pardon is even considered.

But what makes the pardon a betrayal is what Bannon stands accused of. Here's how prosecutors in the Southern District of New York put it in an indictment (note that Bannon's alleged co-conspirators were not pardoned):

RIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, the defendants, and others, orchestrated a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors, including donors in the Southern District of New York, in connection with an online crowdfunding campaign ultimately known as "We Build The Wall" that raised more than $25,000,000 to build a wall along the southern border of the United States. To induce donors to donate to the campaign, KOLFAGE and BANNON - each of whom, as detailed herein, exerted significant control over We Build the Wall repeatedly and falsely assured the public that KOLFAGE would "not take a penny in salary or compensation" and that "100% of the funds raised... will be used in the execution of our mission and purpose" because, as BANNON publicly stated, "we're a volunteer organization."

Those representations were false. In truth, BRIAN KOLFAGE, STEPHEN BANNON, ANDREW BADOLATO, and TIMOTHY SHEA, the defendants, collectively received hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor funds from We Build the Wall, which they each used in a manner inconsistent with the organization's public representations. In particular, KOLFAGE covertly took more than $350,000 in funds that had been donated to We Build the Wall for his personal use, while BANNON, through a non-profit organization under his control received over $1,000,000 from We Build the wall, which BANNON used to, among other things, secretly pay KOLFAGE and to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.

In other words, Bannon ripped off thousands of fans of the president he helped elect to personally enrich himself, according to the indictment. And it's worse than that, because Trump was supposed to be building the wall as president with the federal government, not with private funds. And it's even worse than that, because Trump campaigned for months on the idea that Mexico would pay for the wall — a promise widely derided and mocked, but that Trump insisted was legitimate.

But Trump cares so little for the fans who support him, he's happy to let the man who allegedly defrauded them off the hook. The White House statement on the matter gave no explanation or justification for this pardon:

President Trump granted a full pardon to Stephen Bannon. Prosecutors pursued Mr. Bannon with charges related to fraud stemming from his involvement in a political project. Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen.

In another betrayal, Trump found a new way to break another of his 2016 campaign promises: "Drain the swamp" — that is, ridding Washington, D.C., of corruption.

As a part of this supposed commitment, Trump made a big show near the start of his term of enacting a five-year lobbying ban for officials who leave the administration. In truth, Trump's ethics rules weakened what had come before, but this measure was supposed to limit outside influence and inappropriate access.

"This was something, a five-year ban, that I was talking about a lot on the campaign trail, and we are now putting it into effect," Trump said when signing the order in 2017.

In January 2017, flanked by his top aides, President Trump made a big show out of signing an executive order that w… https://t.co/jwWn8NL17D

— Yashar Ali (@Yashar Ali )1611124783.0

On Wednesday morning, the White House issued an order revoking these restrictions, making them meaningless for anyone who had stayed through the entire administration, and cutting them short for anyone who had left early:

Executive Order 13770 of January 28, 2017, "Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Appointees," is hereby revoked, effective at noon January 20, 2021. Employees and former employees subject to the commitments in Executive Order 13770 will not be subject to those commitments after noon January 20, 2021.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

prev bribery story?

trump allies raking in tens of thousands of dollars from wealthy felons seeking pardons: NYT

Tom Boggioni Raw Story

January 17, 2021

According to a report from the New York Times, close associates of Donald Trump have been raking in tens of thousands of dollars from wealthy felons seeking a presidential pardon before the president steps down...

roger commuted, kids and rudy up for pre-emptive pardons

Over the last two weeks, President Donald Trump has been met with heightened criticism for his flurry of pardons which many have described as a blatant abuse of power. Many of Trump's most controversial pardons, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, Roger Stone, and Paul Manafort, have made headlines, but former DOJ lawyer Alex Busansky, in an op-ed for the Washington Post, explains what he considers to be Trump's worst pardon, to date.

According to Busansky, Trump's decision to pardon Stephanie Mohr is likely his worst. Although Mohr's name has not been mentioned much in the reports highlighting Trump's pardons, the publication argues that her crime is insulting to the ongoing civil rights battle against police brutality and inequality.

Mohr, a police officer for the Prince George's County Police Department, found herself at the center of controversy when she violated a homeless man's civil rights.

The former officer served more than 10 years behind bars following a police brutality case where she unleashed her K-9 on the homeless man. While Mohr has insisted that she was not an officer who participated in police brutality, Busansky highlighted a number of aspects in the case that suggest otherwise.

Busanksy writes:

"A police sergeant later testified that he was approached by Mohr's supervising officer who said, "Hey Sarge, we got a new dog. Mind if it gets a bite?" The sergeant gave consent, and Mohr set her dog to attack Mendez, an undocumented immigrant whose only crime was seeking a safe place to eat and sleep. Mohr testified that she was doing her job as trained, and the victim needed "only 10 stitches."

Think about that: only 10 stitches. Mohr disregarded her training to give her dog a taste of flesh and blood."

Despite Mohr's claims, Busansky emphasizes "this was no accident or split-second mistake. It was a willful and deliberate act of police brutality" and it was not Mohr's first offense. With all of the evidence stacked against Mohr, Trump disregarded facts and pardoned her anyway -- signaling a blatant disregard for the law and the consequences Mohr faced for her actions.

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

~ conserv sen

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649659301/

DC rept

The message: the boss takes care of friends and allies if they lie for the boss or keep silent, but does nothing for those who cooperate with law enforcement. Give Trump's many attacks on the FBI and other law enforcement, this should surprise no one, especially journalists -- and yet it eluded them.[helo coke trafficker]

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649658859

an 1220 https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/jared-kushner-2649647902

no lnx

Inside Jared Kushner key role behind Trump's flurry of pardons

Meaghan Ellis December 27, 2020

Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump's son-in-law and White House Senior Advisor, has played an important role in organizing the flurry of clemency requests the president has received as he enters the last month of his presidency.

Over the last five days, Trump has granted a total of 65 pardons and commutations, including which eliminated convictions and prison sentences for many of his own allies and close acquaintances.

As expected, the president's executive orders were widely criticized and many legal experts have viewed the avalanche of pardons as an abuse of power. No insiders are detailing Kushner's involvement in Trump's orders. According to HuffPost, inside sources have described Trump's pardons as a "free-for-all" as they explained Kushner's role.

"Everyone's sending emails to Jared," an insider source said. "If you want to make something happen, go to Jared."

The publication also reported that insiders have explained Kushner's scorekeeping strategy in an effort to monitor who Trump grants pardons. The source added, "It's going to be a free-for-all. He'll let you know where you stand. The ones who are going to get pardoned and get to the top of the list are the ones who have representatives, staff or counsel that were loyal to the president."

Details about Kushner's involvement in Trump's pardons come just days after the president granted a full pardon to his father, Charles Kushner who was convicted back in 2005 on a string of criminal charges including tax evasion, illegal campaign contribution, and witness tampering. At the time, Kushner had allegedly conspired with a female escort to seduce his brother-in-law so he could blackmail him, according to NJ.com.

When the walls began to cave in, Kushner ultimately "admitted to defrauding the IRS of between $200,000 and $325,000 by filing 16 tax returns that claimed those political contributions as 'office expenses,'" according to the New Jersey-based news outlet which also reported that Kushner "acknowledged that he lied to the Federal Election Commission when he reported $385,000 in political contributions from his business partners. The partners claimed they were unaware of the donations."

A White House source also discussed Kushner's involvement in Trump's criminal justice reform efforts and his failure to successfully manage the platform.

"He obviously led the criminal-justice reform efforts and was supportive of his dad's case," the source said. "He's also gotten emails and requests from people, but in no way is he running or tracking this process."

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what legal experts are saying about Trump’s Manafort, Kushner pardons

Alex Henderson

December 24, 2020

On Wednesday night, December 23, President Donald Trump announced yet another round of pardons — and this time, they ranged from his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort to Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, White House Senior Adviser Jared

an 1220

Trump's most recent batch of pardons, announced on Wednesday, December 23, ranges from his 2016 campaign manager, Paul Manafort, to Charles Kushner (father of White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner). During the Russia investigation, Trump repeatedly dismissed former special counsel Robert Mueller's work as a "hoax" — which was the same word he later used to describe the Ukraine scandal and the COVID-19 pandemic. But journalist Jonathan Chait, in an article published by New York Magazine, argues that Trump's decision to pardon Manafort shows just how substantial the Russia investigation was.

Chait explains, "The official White House statement justifying the pardon of Paul Manafort explains that his prosecution 'was premised on the Russian collusion hoax.' But Trump's pardon — a ploy so well signaled its inevitability was clear even before he stepped into the Oval Office and that he has floated for years to keep Manafort quiet — is the final proof the Russia investigation was not a hoax, but a scandal Trump used his powers to thwart."

...Chait notes that Manafort "spent the bulk of" the 2010s "managing the campaign of corrupt, pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych" and "was being paid for this job by Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska."

"Manafort was almost surely not an instrument for (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to control Trump's campaign in anything like as direct a fashion as the Kremlin seemed to control Yanukovych's puppet regime in Kiev," Chait recalls. "Manafort did, however, maintain a continuous line of contact with Russia throughout the 2016 campaign (through) his former business partner, the Russian spy Konstantin Kilimnik. At one point during the campaign, Manafort met Kilimnik in New York and passed him 75 pages of detailed polling information."

Looking back on Manafort's decision not to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice during the Russia investigation, Chait argues, "The fact Manafort withheld cooperation from prosecutors, and then received a pardon from Trump, may have been sufficient to insulate either man from legal consequences. But the pattern of facts creates an overwhelming presumption of guilt. Manafort possesses the legal right to withhold cooperation from prosecutors, and Trump possesses the constitutional right to reward him for doing so with a pardon. But neither man is owed the suspension of disbelief required to consider them innocent."

Trump, Chait observes, "has repeatedly floated future pardons to his partners to prevent them from ratting him out" — and that includes Manafort.

Chait explains, "(Trump) ran the Mafia-boss playbook, but one enhanced by a power no godfather could dream of wielding…. There is an old cliché in Washington that says it's the cover-up, not the crime, that gets you. The line comes from an era when the crimes were more modest and cover-ups harder to sustain. Sometimes, cover-ups succeed."

FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES

RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB

https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-pardons-2649624556/

cody f

On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump unleashed a wave of pardons and grants of clemency for 20 individuals. Among those included in this round were two of the president's early supporters in Congress and two figures convicted in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Since the special counsel was appointed specifically to shield the investigation from conflicts of interest with the president, these two pardons, much like the clemency offered to Trump allies Michael Flynn and Roger Stone, undercuts the integrity of Mueller probe.

Trump also gave pardons to four veterans who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007.

Georga Papadopoulos was among those receiving a pardon on Tuesday. He is a former adviser on the president's 2016 campaign who pleaded guilty for lying to the FBI about his contacts with an individual offering emails from Hillary Clinton months before WikiLeaks began dumping hacked Democratic emails to influence the election. Though Papadopoulos expressed contrition and was granted a lenient sentence, he has since argued that he was the victim of a set-up. In a statement explaining the pardon, the White House dismissed Papadopoulos's illegal lies as a "process-related crime."

Trump also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, who was charged by Mueller for lying to investigators. He admitted to deleting emails and misleading the investigation about his work with Rick Gates, who worked on Trump's 2016 campaign. This, too, was dismissed as a mere "process-related crime."

In another disturbing move, Trump repaid favors to two of his earliest endorsers in Congress, former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter of California and Chris Collins of New York.

Hunter pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds, while Collins pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit securities fraud and lying to the FBI. When indictments of the pair were rolled out under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Trump attacked his hand-picked head of the Justice Department for daring to pursue the crimes of Republicans:

Two long running, Obama era, investigations of two very popular Republican Congressmen were brought to a well publ… https://t.co/QTG25ccvbp

— Donald J. Trump (@Donald J. Trump)1535999125.0

Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison, while Collins received a 26-month sentence. The only justification the White House offered for pardoning these crimes was that they came "at the request of many Members of Congress." Of course, it's not surprising that members of Congress would prefer to not see their buddies go to prison.

Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard all received pardons from Trump on Tuesday after facing charges including first-degree murder and manslaughter in the 2007 massacre of Iraqi citizens. They were working for the mercenary contractor Blackwater at the time, owned by Trump ally Erik Prince. The White House said many members of Congress had lobbied for these pardons and suggested there were questions about the evidence used in the case.

Two former agents of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, also received pardons.They were convicted on charges of assault, using a firearm during a crime of violence, and deprivation of civil rights, after an incident in which Ramos shot an immigrant suspected of smuggling marijuana at the border. Former President George W. Bush had already commuted their sentences of 11 and 12 years in prison.

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pardoned?!

1220 federal judge says Trump's pardon of Michael Flynn may have been ‘too broad’: report

ltr

steve stockman

http://www.conservativehq.com/article/32277-conservative-leaders-urge-humanitarian-release-former-rep-steve-stockman

tothe TASK FORCE that does nothing?!

Petition to The White House Coronavirus Task Force

About The Emergency Need to Protect

Nonviolent At-Risk Prisoners

undermines rule of law; Jerry Nadler close to bribery

an 720

From the full Editorial Board of the Washington Post:

THERE ARE no doubt thousands of people in federal prison who deserved a presidential commutation more than Roger Stone. But after President Trump’s intervention on Friday, Mr. Stone will serve none of his prison sentence. The president may have had the power to help his longtime friend. But that does not make it any less a perversion of justice — indeed, it is one of the most nauseating instances of corrupt government favoritism the United States has ever seen.

***

The United States is supposed to be a place in which laws apply equally to all. And while it never has — and never will — live up to that ideal in full, no modern president before Mr. Trump has so clearly renounced it. The president seems to be doing his best, within the confines of the U.S. constitutional system, to emulate the gangster leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin, a man whose ruinous reign Mr. Trump has always admired. If the country needed any more evidence, Friday confirmed that the greatest threat to the Republic is the president himself.

320 wapo

The Fix

Analysis

Twitter removes David Clarke’s tweets as he and other Trump allies sow coronavirus conspiracy theories and doubts

Aaron Blake

March 16, 2020 at 2:09 p.m. PDT

“If you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easy. Let’s not hurt the working people in this country...go to your local pub” pic.twitter.com/jXdhOfwe9R

— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) March 15, 2020

On CNN on Sunday morning, Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, urged people to stop going out to eat and drink. “I would like to see a dramatic diminution of the personal interaction that we see in restaurants and in bars,” he said. “Whatever it takes to do that, that’s what I’d like to see.”

The same morning, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) appeared on Fox News with an almost diametrically opposed bit of advice. “If you’re healthy — you and your family — it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant. Likely you can get in easy,” he said, adding, “Go to your local pub. ”

Nunes said he didn’t want the lack of work to harm the employees of those establishments, and that’s a legitimate concern as the stock market tumbles. But Fauci indicated that the bigger concern right now is the spread of a deadly disease.

And even as officials such as Fauci have increasingly urged people to socially distance themselves and take the coronavirus seriously, a number of top allies of President Trump, such as Nunes, have pressed forward with very different messages. Some of them have even floated conspiracy theories. While Trump’s commentary on the virus has routinely been more optimistic than that of health officials, these allies seem to have taken his cue and gone quite a bit further in stoking doubts about the whole thing.

Update: Trump was asked about Nunes’s comments on Monday afternoon, when he himself urged people to stay away from bars and restaurants. Trump said, “I haven’t heard that. I haven’t heard that from Devin or anybody else." But when told of the substance, he said, “I would disagree with it, but right now we don’t have an order one way or another. But I think it’s probably better that you don’t.”

Among them Sunday was a man Trump recently pardoned, former New York City police commissioner Bernard Kerik. Kerik said on Twitter: “Why do I feel this hysteria is being created to destabilize the country, and destroy the unparalleled and historic economic successes of President @realDonaldTrump?” He then compared the virus death toll (which is still climbing rapidly) to other causes of death worldwide.

Why do I feel this hysteria is being created to destabilize the country, and destroy the unparalleled and historic economic successes of President @realDonaldTrump?

Worldwide Deaths... Jan-Feb 2020

2,360: Coronavirus

69,602: Common Cold/Flu

240,950: HIV

— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) March 16, 2020

In another set of tweets, Kerik attacked mayors and governors who he felt were overreacting to the coronavirus.

“Where is the unity, calming of fears, leadership, and the message that we as a country are going to get through this?” Kerik said. “President @realDonaldTrump is the only leader in the whole damned country! The rest are instilling fear, and are going to push 30% of the country into poverty!”

Where is the unity, calming of fears, leadership, and the message that we as a country are going to get through this? President @realDonaldTrump is the only leader in the whole damned country! The rest are instilling fear, and are going to push 30% of the country into poverty!

— Bernard B. Kerik (@BernardKerik) March 16, 2020

Another outspoken Trump-supporting former police chief, former Milwaukee County sheriff David Clarke, was even more conspiratorial. He suggested on Twitter that the alleged hysteria was being pushed by liberal billionaire George Soros — a common subject of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories — and urged people to take to the streets.

“Not ONE media outlet has asked about George Soros’s involvement in this FLU panic,” Clarke said. “He is SOMEWHERE involved in this. ”

Not ONE media outlet has asked about George Soros’s involvement in this FLU panic. He is SOMEWHERE involved in this.

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) March 15, 2020

Early in the Trump administration, Clarke said he accepted a top post at the Department of Homeland Security, then abruptly withdrew that acceptance. He, like Nunes, also urged people to disregard the advice to stay away from crowded places. He told his 917,000 followers, in fact, to take to the streets as a form of protest.

“GO INTO THE STREETS FOLKS,” he said. “Visit bars, restaurants, shopping malls, CHURCHES and demand that your schools reopen. NOW! If government doesn’t stop this foolishness … STAY Ind. THE STREETS. END GOVERNMENT CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES. IF NOT NOW, WHEN? THIS IS AN EXPLOITATION OF A CRISIS. ”

GO INTO THE STREETS FOLKS. Visit bars, restaurants, shopping malls, CHURCHES and demand that your schools re-open. NOW!

If government doesn’t stop this foolishness...STAY IN THE STREETS.

END GOVERNEMNT CONTROL OVER OUR LIVES. IF NOT NOW, WHEN?

THIS IS AN EXPLOITATION OF A CRISIS.

— David A. Clarke, Jr. (@SheriffClarke) March 15, 2020

Twitter has taken down other Clarke tweets in accordance with its policy against tweets that encourage self-harm, including one in which he urged people to “defy the order” to not go to restaurants and bars and another in which he referred to the idea that “we have to err on the side of caution” using an expletive.

...

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-corrupt-pardon-spree-has-only-just-begun

no lnx

Trump’s corrupt pardon spree has only just begun

Paul Manafort (Image via Screengrab) and Judge Amy Berman Jackson (Image via uscourts.gov / Wikimedia Commons).

Written by Joe Conason February 22, 2020

The power of the president to grant pardons as stated in the Constitution is unconditional, as President Donald Trump has observed. But as he prepares to bestow that favor on Roger Stone and perhaps other felons who have protected him, someone should advise him that a corrupt pardon is nevertheless a crime that can be prosecuted, if not overturned.

So Bill Clinton learned soon after he pardoned Marc Rich on the last day of his presidency, Jan. 20, 2001. Public anger exploded within days after Clinton granted a conditional reprieve to the infamous “fugitive financier,” who had skipped to a Swiss chateau, evading trial on charges of tax evasion, sanctions violations and conspiracy. Among those most infuriated by Clinton’s surprise decision were the federal prosecutors who spent years chasing Rich.

Suspicion centered on generous political and charitable donations by Rich’s ex-wife over a period of years to various Clinton campaigns and the Clinton Foundation. Mary Jo White, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, swiftly announced that her office had opened a criminal investigation of Clinton — the president who had appointed her. That probe continued for a few years under the watchful eye of James Comey, chosen by then-President George W. Bush to replace White.

No doubt Comey and his boss, then-Attorney General John Ashcroft — who had voted to convict Clinton in his Senate impeachment trial — would have relished indicting the former president. The investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, however. Clinton’s actual motive was to reward then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, who personally called the Oval Office three times seeking a pardon for Rich in the midst of peace talks with the Palestinians. (As usual, under the “Clinton rules,” the former president’s eventual exoneration went unnoticed in major media outlets.)

But the immediate outrage over Rich’s pardon inflamed media outlets for weeks, setting the stage for both congressional and prosecutorial inquiries. Today the same politicians of both parties who screamed about Clinton are silent.

Have none of them noticed the massive flows of donor money surrounding the Trump pardons? Never mind the blatant influence peddling by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and various other presidential cronies and supporters. If the Rich donations were suspect, what about the cash poured into Trump’s coffers by those seeking pardons and their advocates?

Dallas Republican donor Doug Deason and his billionaire father gave more than a million dollars to the pro-Trump America First PAC. Their generosity seems to have greased the pardon of David Safavian, a former federal official convicted of obstruction and perjury in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, have given more than $200 million to Republican causes, including at least $30 million to Trump-related committees in recent years and $500,000 to a defense fund for Trump aides coping with special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe. They asked that Trump pardon junk-bond crook Michael Milken and got their wish. (Mrs. Adelson also got the Presidential Medal of Freedom.)

And then there’s the Pogue family, also from Dallas, which forked over $85,000 last year jointly to the president’s reelection committee and the Republican Party — and got a gift-wrapped pardon for its patriarch, Paul Pogue, a construction magnate convicted of tax fraud. Pushing thePogue pardon was former Sen. Rick Santorum,the Pennsylvania Republican who brayed loudly about the Rich case.

If the Trump pardons look sketchy, consider the fact that Trump simply ignored the Justice Department process that is traditionally employed in evaluating such requests. He knows that the law enforcement apparatus headed by Attorney General William Barr will let him abuse his power freely, while perhaps uttering a feeble protest. Or not.

We will soon see how far Trump will go in abusing the pardon authority. He appears to be preparing to do far worse than handing out clemency for cash. The judge who sentenced Roger Stone to almost four years in prison accused the dirty trickster of lying to “protect the president.” When Trump pardons Stone, Paul Manafort and others implicated in the Russia scandal, he will cap the most troubling cover-up in American history.

If Clinton was subject to investigation and possible prosecution, then Trump should be too.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-pardons-former-san-francisco-49ers-owner-edward-debartolo/2020/02/18/e47f9ed6-526a-11ea-9e47-59804be1dcfb_story.html

wapo 200

no lnx

Washington Post

Trump grants clemency to high-profile individuals, including Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken and Bernard Kerik

Anne Gearan,

Josh Dawsey,

Beth Reinhard and

Colby Itkowitz

Feb. 18, 2020

President Trump on Tuesday used his sweeping presidential pardon powers to forgive the crimes of a list of boldface names, including disgraced politician Rod R. Blagojevich, convicted junk bond king Michael Milken and former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik.

Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of seven convicted white-collar criminals at the center of federal anti-corruption and tax fraud cases spanning decades, alongside four women whose cases were not as well known.

The action frees Blagojevich, the former Democratic governor of Illinois, from the federal correctional facility in Colorado where he was serving out his 14-year sentence. He was convicted on corruption charges in 2011 for trying in 2008 to sell President-elect Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat.

“He’ll be able to go back home with his family after serving eight years in jail,” Trump told reporters. “That was a tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence in my opinion and in the opinion of many others.”

Tuesday’s clemency announcements came as Trump has been flexing his power in recent days after being acquitted by the Senate on two impeachment charges. The president has removed from their jobs witnesses who testified against him and publicly weighed in on criminal cases concerning his associates while also dismissing the idea that his actions have crossed ethical or legal lines.

The pardons and commutations focus on the type of corruption and lying charges his associates were convicted of as part of the Russia investigation, once again raising the question of whether he will pardon former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, former national security adviser Michael Flynn and longtime adviser and friend Roger Stone. Trump said he hadn’t thought about pardoning those three but made clear he wasn’t happy with the cases brought against them.

“I think Roger Stone has been treated unfairly. I think General Flynn has been treated very unfairly,” he told reporters. “I think a lot of people have been treated very unfairly.”

The executive actions announced Tuesday fit a pattern of highly personal presidential justice that largely bypasses the traditional pardon process administered by the Justice Department. Most of the people who have received clemency under Trump have been well-connected offenders who had a line into the White House or currency with his political base.

Most Trump clemency grants bypass Justice Dept. and go to well-connected offenders

Milken received a pardon with the White House providing a long list of advocates for the wealthy financier, including Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, political donors Miriam and Sheldon Adelson, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

Milken became a symbol of the culture of greed during the 1980s that was fictionalized in movies such as “Wall Street,” where Michael Douglas plays ruthless financier Gordon Gekko, who declares that “greed is good.”

Milken rose to prominence for his role in developing high-interest-bearing securities markets, known as junk bonds, before pleading guilty in 1990 to six felony counts, including securities fraud, mail fraud and aiding in the filing of a false tax return.

Milken, a major donor to causes such as cancer research, has sought to rehabilitate his image.

Also on Trump’s pardon list were Kerik, who was convicted of tax fraud, and Edward DeBartolo Jr., the billionaire former owner of the San Francisco 49ers football team, who pleaded guilty two decades ago to charges related to his role in a corruption case against former Louisiana governor Edwin W. Edwards (D).

The president also pardoned David Safavian, a senior official in the George W. Bush administration who was convicted of obstructing a federal investigation as part of the scandal surrounding lobbyist Jack Abramoff,and two lesser-known business executives, technology executive Ariel Friedler and construction company executive Paul Pogue, who were convicted of computer and tax charges. He also pardoned Angela Stanton, an author who served a six-month home sentence for her role in a stolen vehicle ring.

Kerik is a frequent visitor to the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida and recently posted a picture at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, tagging the president and bragging of “Badassry” there. He declined to comment. Safavian now works at the Trump-aligned American Conservative Union Foundation’s justice center and attacks Trump critics through his Twitter account. Blagojevich’s wife lobbied for her husband’s release, including going on Fox News to make her case.

The White House says all 11 actions help people who were treated unfairly or had repaid society through good works. Most are white men with connections to power and, in some cases, to Trump himself.

Blagojevich and Trump were well acquainted from when Blagojevich was a contestant on Trump’s show “The Apprentice” in 2010. Trump fired Blagojevich for shoddy work on a Florida theme park project, telling him, “Your Harry Potter facts were not accurate. Who did the research?”

Kerik and Milken were prominent New Yorkers during Trump’s professional rise as a real estate magnate there.

“We have Bernie Kerik, we have Mike Milken, who’s gone around and done an incredible job,” Trump said, adding that Milken had “paid a big price.”

The 11 clemency grants Tuesday mark the largest group Trump has announced, but it barely dents the record-setting backlog of nearly 13,000 people waiting for responses to their clemency requests.

The White House released a synopsis of each granted case Tuesday, including lists of supporters that reads like a who’s-who of the president’s elite orbit.

Nelson Peltz, who threw the president a $10 million fundraiser at his $95 million Palm Beach, Fla., house Saturday night, recommended the pardon of Milken.

TV personalities, including Geraldo Rivera, Andrew Napolitano and Maria Bartiromo, were cited as pardon advocates.

Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who advises the president, also takes on legal clients, including Friedler, who received a pardon.

Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was listed as a supporter for both Milken and Kerik, who also received backing from disgraced Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, who was granted clemency by Trump last year. Kerik rode his prominence as Giuliani’s police chief during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to a nomination to be homeland security secretary in the Bush administration. But he soon ran into legal trouble, and his nomination was pulled.

Newsmax Media chief executive Christopher Ruddy said he had lobbied Trump on behalf of Kerik and Blagojevich.

“It was just so glaring that it was a political case,” Ruddy said of Blagojevich.

The entire GOP delegation from Illinois lobbied against the Blagojevich commutation, officials said.

“We are disappointed by the President’s commutation of Rod Blagojevich’s federal sentence. We believe he received an appropriate and fair sentence,” Reps. Darin LaHood, John Shimkus, Adam Kinzinger, Rodney Davis and Mike Bost said in a statement. “History will not judge Rod Blagojevich well.”

Trump made phone calls to the Illinois Republicans including LaHood last week to argue that the Blagojevich sentence was unjust, two administration officials said. But the lawmakers were not convinced.

Some campaign and White House officials opposed the clemency grants — particularly for Blagojevich — believing they could be damaging politically and were unnecessary. Some officials were still seeking to talk Trump out of the actions — some of which had been in the pipeline for more than a year — this weekend.

Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), who signed a letter supporting the Kerik pardon, said the president “has had a lot of respect for Bernie over the years.” Rivera also signed the letter and was instrumental in the pardon, King said.

Trump acknowledged that in deciding whom to pardon, “a lot of times I really rely on the people that know them.”

The head of the Justice Department’s pardon office during the first two years of the Trump administration told The Washington Post that he quit last year because the White House had sidelined his office in favor of taking its cues from celebrities, political allies and Fox News.

DeBartolo and Kerik were denied pardons under Obama. Friedler had never applied to the pardon office, Justice Department records show.

Most presidents in recent decades have faced accusations that they exploited the pardon power. President Bill Clinton issued pardons in the final hours of his presidency to his half brother, a Whitewater business partner, his former housing secretary and a fugitive commodities trader married to a major Democratic donor.

Under Trump, however, politically motivated grants have become the rule, not the exception.

. Nearly all of those selected had been sentenced under the mandatory-minimum penalties deployed during the “war on drugs” that critics say disproportionately punished minority communities. Nearly all of the people who received commutations from Obama were men and nearly 80 percent were African American and Hispanic, according to a report by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

Obama granted an unprecedented number of commutations, about 1,700, under a sweeping initiative that prioritized nonviolent drug offenders

The program ended when Trump took office. He has granted clemency to only one African American man so far: the late boxer Jack Johnson.

The White House also announced Tuesday that Trump had granted commutations to three women convicted of nonviolent drug or fraud offenses. The cases of Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz and Judith Negron were supported by Alice Johnson, a criminal-justice advocate who had her life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense commuted by Trump in 2018. Johnson, whose case was featured in a Trump campaign ad aired during the Super Bowl this month, had been recommended to Trump by reality star and criminal-justice advocate Kim Kardashian West.

“It’s a clemency process for the well-connected, and that’s it,” said Rachel Barkow, a New York University Law School professor and clemency expert. “Trump is wielding the power the way you would expect the leader of a banana republic who wants to reward his friends and cronies.”

Blagojevich was caught on FBI wiretaps talking about trying to sell Obama’s vacated Senate seat, saying that it was a “valuable thing” and that “you don’t just give it away for nothing.”

Trump has mentioned the Democrat’s case frequently in recent years, focusing on what Trump said was a disproportionate punishment for an offense he suggested was really just politics.

“He’s been in jail for seven years over a phone call where nothing happens — over a phone call which he shouldn’t have said what he said, but it was braggadocio, you would say,” Trump told reporters last year. “I would think that there have been many politicians — I’m not one of them, by the way — that have said a lot worse over the telephone.”

Trump first publicly mused about commuting Blagojevich’s sentence in 2018, when he exercised his clemency powers in a string of cases and speculated about others he might pardon. Others mentioned at the time included Martha Stewart, the television personality and lifestyle mogul who was convicted in 2004 of obstructing justice and lying to investigators about a well-timed stock sale.

Trump has routinely downplayed and mischaracterized the case against Blagojevich, whose trial included not only the wiretap but also witnesses testifying that he had solicited campaign cash in exchange for official acts.

In comments last year, Trump also falsely blamed Blagojevich’s treatment on “the Comey gang and all these sleazebags,” a reference to James B. Comey, the FBI director Trump fired amid the mounting investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Comey was in the private sector at the time of Blagojevich’s prosecution and conviction in 2011.

At a fundraiser last year at his Chicago hotel, Trump polled the room on whether he should grant a pardon, taking some donors by surprise. Trump was pleased that so many people said they would be okay with it, people familiar with the event said.

Blagojevich’s turn as a contestant on Trump’s NBC reality show came after he was indicted but before his convictions. Trump praised Blagojevich at the time for having “a lot of guts” to appear on the program.

John Wagner and Marc Fisher contributed to this report.

https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-cronies-who-might-be-in-line-for-presidential-pardons-cannot-escape-prosecution-and-sentences-at-the-state-level/

no lnx

How Jared Kushner wrestled control of Trump pardon process away from Bill Barr’s DOJ: report

Written by Travis Gettys / Raw Story February 20, 2020

President Donald Trump has taken the pardon process away from the Justice Department and given more direct control to son-in-law Jared Kushner and former Florida attorney general Pam Bondi.

The president granted clemency Tuesday to a group of 11 political allies, Fox News regulars and others, and he has put together an informal task force overseen by Kushner to recommend and vet new candidates, reported the Washington Post.

The group has been meeting since late last year, after Kushner recommended taking away control of the process away from the Department of Justice.

One official told the newspaper that Trump was unconcerned about criticism of this week’s pardon spree, and said more pardons would be coming before November’s election.

“He likes doing them,” the official said.

clinton pardoned bro of funder? so did djt

https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/tea-party-governors-last-act-pardons-for-hundreds-including-killer-whose-family-raised-21500-for-re-election/

no lnx

Tea Party governor’s last act: Pardons for hundreds — including killer whose family raised $21,500 for re-election

Matt Bevin image via.”>Wikipedia.

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement December 12, 2019

Outgoing Tea Party Republican Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky has now pardoned hundreds of convicts since he lost a close re-election race one month ago. Among those benefitting from his exit are five convicted killers and other violent felons. One of the men receiving a pardon just happens to have family members who hosted a high-dollar fundraiser for the governor’s re-election campaign this past summer.

Gov. Bevin issued 428 pardons in the month before leaving office this week under objection. Bevin wanted to challenge the election results but Kentucky does not have a law mandating it and he was unsuccessful.

41-year old Patrick Brian Baker received an unconditional pardon from his 19-year prison sentence this week after being convicted in 2017 “of reckless homicide, first-degree robbery, impersonating a peace officer and tampering with physical evidence,” The Times-Tribune reports. The victim’s wife and three children were in the home when the acts occurred.

Saying, “I’ve never seen a more compelling or complete case … the evidence was just overwhelming,” Judge David L. Williams had lamented at sentencing the convicted felon could be imprisoned for only 19 years.

“I believe it would be a miscarriage of justice to do any less,” Williams added. “It’s 19 years because that’s all I can give you…if I could give you more, I would.”

But as Newsweek reports, “Baker’s brother and sister in law, Eric and Kathryn Baker, hosted a fundraiser for Bevin at their home in Corbin, Kentucky, in July last year,” according to The Courier Journal. They raised a whopping $21,500. The pair added $4000 to the pot as well.

Baker’s co-defendants are not receiving pardons, despite the fact it was Baker who pulled the trigger.

Others receiving pardons “include one offender convicted of raping a child, another who hired a hit man to kill his business partner and a third who killed his parents.”

Ted Suhl was serving his third year of a seven-year sentence for bribery and Medicaid fraud when Trump commuted his sentence and sprung him, at the request of Mike Huckabee; the White House released a statement explaining Trump's reasoning for the commutation, and, as Propublica documents, it is full of "half-truths and omissions" about Trump's new grifter pal. Propublica did the hard work of annotating the Trump statement to remove the bullshit and tell the true tale. Read the rest

hmmn

• Nixon: 76 criminal indictments, 55 criminal convictions, 15 prison sentences

• Carter: 0 criminal indictments, 0 criminal convictions, 0 prison sentences

• Reagan: 26 criminal indictments, 16 criminal convictions, 8 prison sentences

• Bush: 16 criminal indictments, 16 criminal convictions, 9 prison sentences

• Clinton: 2 criminal indictments, 1 criminal conviction, 1 prison sentence

• Obama: 0 criminal indictments, 0 criminal convictions, 0 prison sentences

• Trump: 6 criminal indictments, 5 criminal conviction, multiple immunity deals, 3 prison sentence, and the games have just begun.

Score so far: Republicans 124, Democrats 2. Because yes, Republicans are corrupt POS.

Former CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose identity as a covert officer was leaked by Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff Scooter Libby during the Plame affair, on Monday spoke with CNN’s John Berman about Donald Trump’s decision to pardon Libby — explaining that she thought the president was sending a message to “his cronies” with the move.

Berman first asked Plame if, as a former member of the intelligence community, she agrees with Attorney General William Barr’s assessment that the Trump campaign was “spied” on.

“I absolutely do not,” Plame replied. “These are professionals in our intelligence community, both in the federal bureau of investigation and in the CIA. I have to believe that what happened is there was real cause. The barr is extremely high to collect information, particularly on U.S. citizen.”

“So I don’t know all the details of what led to that, but I think Attorney General Barr’s rather casual assessment that the FBI spied on candidate Trump is a little too loose with the facts,” she added.

Asked to “make sense” of Trump’s decision to pardon Libby, Plame explained the decision had “nothing” to do with her — or with Libby.

“That was about a year ago,” Plame replied. “Look, that pardon has nothing to do with me, nothing to do with Scooter Libby and I think it had everything to do with Trump sending a signal to his cronies that, look, you take care of me, I’ll take care of you. I think that’s all it comes down.”

DOBBS (HOST): Our first guest tonight says the Manafort indictment is overkill, another example of Mueller abusing his power, and an investigation that's become disastrous. Joining us tonight, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. Tom, good to have you with us.

I mean, how many -- I mean, Manafort's going to set some sort of record as the most indicted man in political history. What in the world is -- what is gained by the Special Counsel adding to these charges, and making these extraordinary charges that have really nothing to do with the Trump campaign, that have nothing to do even with the modern era in American politics?

[...]

FITTON: If I were the president, I would look at this investigation as something requiring a pardon analysis, because I don't know whether Manafort did anything wrong or not, but I don't trust Mueller to figure it out. And I know that if he did anything wrong or not, he would never have been indicted but for his relationship with then-candidate Trump. So, if -- in those circumstances a pardon may be warranted.

Previously:

Lou Dobbs and Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton call on Trump to "just pardon everybody, you know, just have a field day"

Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton tells Hannity "It's fair to ask whether" Rod Rosenstein should "be fired, or in the least have to recuse himself"

Tom Fitton tells Tucker Carlson that Jeff Sessions should order U.S. Marshals to raid FBI offices

On Fox Business, Judicial Watch's Tom Fitton says Jeff Sessions can "unrecuse" himself from Trump/Russia probe

pardon clemency

Capitol riotTrump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators

'QAnon Shaman' vows to 'buy some guns' after Trump’s Jan. 6 pardons

The Hill serves up what may just be the most absurd headline in media history

what legal experts are saying about Trump’s Manafort, Kushner pardons

Capitol riot Trump's Jan. 6 pardons face pushback from Republican senators