22 replies to this topic

[LFC]

I started a new thread because I'm pretty sure the list of shitbags that get pardoned will grow longer and longer.

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President Trump went on pardon tear Tuesday night as his presidency wanes, with the White House announcing grants of clemency for key figures in the 2016 Russia investigation and for congressional allies of Trump who were prosecuted during his administration.

Trump granted a full pardon to his former 2016 campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who kickstarted the Russian investigation when he told a foreign diplomat about Russia’s efforts to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton. Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation for making false statements to the FBI. The former Skadden Arps lawyer Alexander van der Zwaan, who likewise pleaded guilty in Mueller’s probe, was granted a full pardon for lying to officials investigating his involvement in a 2012 a report that white-washed the prosecution of a Ukrainian official.

Former Reps. Chris Collins (R-NY) and Duncan Hunter (R-CA) were also granted full pardons. The two Republicans were the first members of the House to endorse Trump in the 2016 campaign. Collins pleaded guilty for crimes related to an insider trading scandal, and is currently serving a 26-month prison sentence. Hunter, who was scheduled to go to prison next month, pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations.

Another former House Republican, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), was also pardoned by Trump. Stockman had been convicted in 2018 for a slew of financial crimes, also involving the misuse of campaign funds.

Ten other individuals received pardons, the White House announced Tuesday, and five more received partial or full commutations of their sentences.

Among those pardoned were several Blackwater contractors who were prosecuted for fatally shooting unarmed Iraqi civilians in a 2007 episode of the Iraq War.

Read the full White House announcement of the pardons below:

[LFC]

It's not just pardons being handed out like crazy, it's also appointments to jobs for which qualifications apparently aren't required, at least not if you're a Trumpy.

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President Donald Trump on Tuesday added more loyalists to the long list of friends who’ve gotten plum jobs as he eyes the exits.

Hope Hicks, the Trump confidante and two-time White House employee, will serve on the board of the prestigious Fulbright scholarship.

But Hicks isn’t alone. Tuesday’s list has a few familiar names: Ric Grenell, the former acting director of national intelligence who later played a key PR role in Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election, was given membership on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council. (Andrew Giuliani, Rudy’s son, was added to the council last week.)

This is my favorite.

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Stephanie Grisham, the White House press secretary that never held a briefing, will be a member of the National Board for Education Sciences’ board of directors.

[pnwguy]

 LFC, on 23 December 2020 - 11:16 AM, said:

...for which qualifications apparently aren't required, at least not if you're a Trumpy.

"Qualifications? We don't need no stinking Qualifications"

[LFC]

More details on the back scratching pardons. I wonder how much money will immediately be flowing into Trump's 2024 campaign coffers.

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Philip Esformes, the leading figure in one of the largest Medicare fraud-bribery-kickback schemes in U.S. history, received a sentence commutation with the support of two former attorneys general — Edwin Meese and Michael Mukasey — as well as former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson.

And while President George W. Bush had already commuted the sentences of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, the former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and attempting to cover up their actions, Trump gave the men full pardons. The White House noted the move was backed by some of the GOP’s fringiest Trump supporter: Reps. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Steve King (R-IA), Ted Poe (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Brian Babin (R-TX).

The individuals on Trump’s list with the most support were also those accused of the bloodiest crime: Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, all former Blackwater mercenaries, were convicted for committing the 2007 Nisour Square massacre, killing 14 Iraqi civilians including children.

Or, as the White House put it: “[T]he situation turned violent, which resulted in the unfortunate deaths and injuries of Iraqi civilians.”

[golden_valley]

 LFC, on 23 December 2020 - 02:46 PM, said:

More details on the back scratching pardons. I wonder how much money will immediately be flowing into Trump's 2024 campaign coffers.

Do you suggest that some of pardonpalooza is a "going out of business" sale?

[LFC]

 golden_valley, on 23 December 2020 - 02:51 PM, said:

Do you suggest that some of pardonpalooza is a "going out of business" sale?

[LFC]

This is no shock.

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President Donald Trump unleashed a spree of pardons of convicted war criminals and corrupt Republican politicians on Tuesday night, and some of the president's advisers are telling Axios that he did it in part to get attention.

According to the publication's sources, the president is upset when he turns on the television and "sees [President-elect Joe] Biden being relevant every day" by rolling out cabinet picks and holding briefings on the novel coronavirus pandemic.

[LFC]

As expected the Trump pardon mill keeps churning.

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening announced 26 new pardons, including ones for longtime ally Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's father, Charles.

The pardons extend Trump's streak of wielding his clemency powers for criminals who are loyalists, well-connected or adjacent to his family. While all presidents issue controversial pardons at the end of their terms, Trump appears to be moving at a faster pace than his predecessors, demonstrating little inhibition at rewarding his friends and allies using one of the most unrestricted powers of his office.

The pardons of Manafort and Stone reward two of the most high-profile and widely condemned former advisers of the President, both of whom were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, went to trial and were convicted by juries of multiple crimes.

[golden_valley]

29 more, including Paul Manafort, who was probably starting to wonder if he was getting one, and Jared Kushner's father.

I really hope someone can dig up evidence that some of the pardons were the result of bribes.

[pnwguy]

No surprises anywhere, when you let a crime boss be the warden. Perhaps the only surprises were the Blackwater war criminals. Dumpster aspires to be as psychopathic as they are, so setting them free is like his version of being a fan boy.

[golden_valley]

 pnwguy, on 23 December 2020 - 08:13 PM, said:

No surprises anywhere, when you let a crime boss be the warden. Perhaps the only surprises were the Blackwater war criminals. Dumpster aspires to be as psychopathic as they are, so setting them free is like his version of being a fan boy.

Yeah and Blackwater's founder is Betsy DeVos's brother.

[LFC]

 pnwguy, on 23 December 2020 - 08:13 PM, said:

Perhaps the only surprises were the Blackwater war criminals. Dumpster aspires to be as psychopathic as they are, so setting them free is like his version of being a fan boy.

Over at TAC Larison unleashed on Trump's love of war criminals.

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As a candidate, the president advocated for war crimes and called for reviving the use of torture, and as president he has pardoned or commuted the sentences of accused and convicted American war criminals. He just did so again today. It is not at all surprising that the president would issue these pardons, but it needs to be stressed just how appalling and despicable these pardons are. There is no question that the mercenaries convicted of these crimes were guilty, and the massacre that these men committed is an inexcusable atrocity. Letting such men off the hook makes a mockery of the rule of law, our government’s respect for the lives of innocent people, and the true purpose of clemency. These pardons set convicted killers free, they insult all those hundreds of thousands of Americans that have served honorably under similar or worse conditions, and they send the message to the world that the U.S. won’t really punish its own people when they commit terrible outrages in other countries.

Like the Clint Lorance pardon that Trump issued last year, the pardons for the Blackwater mercenaries have nothing to do with using the pardon power to correct some grave injustice. They are an egregious abuse of clemency to help convicted murderers escape the consequences of their actions. Nicholas Slatten was sentenced to life for his role in the killings. Slatten’s three fellow mercenaries had been sentenced in 2015 to 30 years.

[LFC]

Now it's up to 65 pardons and, no surprise, Jared's up to his scrawny little neck in all of it. I guess he's collecting up a list of favors for future use after he and his family are no longer protected by the presidency.

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President Trump’s son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner, has played a key role in managing the avalanche of clemency requests that have come into the White House as the administration nears its end next month, according to multiple sources.

With the holiday approaching, Trump has issued 65 pardons and commutations since Tuesday, including many that erased convictions and sentences for his allies, and more are expected in the coming days.

“Everyone’s sending emails to Jared,” a source familiar with the process said. “If you want to make something happen, go to Jared.”

The source, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the ongoing process, spoke with Yahoo News on Monday, before Trump issued the spate of pardons and commutations. They predicted the coming onslaught of pardons.

“It’s going to be a free-for-all,” the source said.

They went on to claim that Kushner was “keeping score” and tracking the people asking for clemency. “He’ll let you know where you stand,” the source said. “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.”

[LFC]

F*** murder, there's money to be made! It's not an actual pardon but this one has the stank of Jared all over it.

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The U.S. State Department is reportedly considering immunity for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a lawsuit accusing him of attempting to have a former Saudi intelligence official assassinated.

Saad Aljabri, a longtime aide to former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, went public with his claims in August. His federal lawsuit alleges the crown prince dispatched a hit squad to Canada, where Aljabri lives in exile, and that border officials prevented them from entering the country.

Aljabri alleges the men were sent to kill him within days of the killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi government filed an Interpol notice asking other countries’ law enforcement to arrest and extradite Aljabri, accusing him of corruption and using his office to enrich himself.

In November, State Department officials requested information from Aljabri’s lawyers on their views on Riyadh’s immunity request for Crown Prince Mohammed, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. It remains unclear whether the department will ultimately recommend immunity, or whether a decision will be made before President-elect Joe Biden takes office in January.

[LFC]

Congratulations, Trump! You're a war criminal!

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President Donald Trump’s pre-Christmas pardon of four Blackwater contractors convicted of killing more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in 2007 violated U.S. obligations under international law, United Nations experts said in a Wednesday statement.

“These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level,” said Jelena Aparac, chair of the U.N.’s working group on the use of mercenaries.

The human rights experts at the U.N. noted in the statement that the Geneva Conventions require states to hold war criminals accountable for their crimes, even when those crimes are committed by private security contractors. The four former contractors who were pardoned last week opened fire in a Baghdad square over a decade ago and killing 14 Iraqi civilians.

[LFC]

Looks like Trump didn't pardon just international war criminals, he pardoned at least one domestic equivalent of a war criminal. It seems that the embrace of sickness and cruelty (since "cruelty is the point") against the "others" is a pillar of American conservatism. I'm not sure there was a time it wasn't.

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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.

[baw1064]

I think the FBI, etc. should avoid arresting or naming any of the Capitol rioters until Jan. 20.

[Rue Bella]

 baw1064, on 08 January 2021 - 09:46 PM, said:

I think the FBI, etc. should avoid arresting or naming any of the Capitol rioters until Jan. 20.

I agree. perhaps this is the reason there don't seem to be so many arrests yet.

[Rue Bella]

I just thought of a couple reasons why Trump won't pardon the insurrectionists. Since the 25th seems not possible via Pence, another round of impeachment might happen. Trump won't pardon the perps because it would look as if he condoned their actions (which of course he did). Second, he really doesn't care about them. Not one iota. They are tools. And like McCain, they are losers to him. They got caught. And most important, they were not strong or forceful enough. They failed to deliver his victory.

[HockeyDon]

Pawns exist to be sacrificed.