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Trump’s Pardons: The Checklist – The New York Instances

Trump's Pardons: The List - The New York Times

In the final hours before President Trump left office, the White House released a list early Wednesday of 73 pardons and 70 commutations that he had issued.

They came nearly a month after Mr. Trump pardoned, among others, Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman; and Roger J. Stone Jr., his longtime informal adviser and friend whose sentence the president had commuted in July.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution gives presidents unlimited authority to grant pardons, which excuse or forgive a federal crime. A commutation, by contrast, makes a punishment milder without wiping out the underlying conviction.

Here are some of the pardons and commutations that Mr. Trump issued during his term:

Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021

Mr. Bannon, who was Mr. Trump’s former chief strategist and an architect of his 2016 presidential campaign, was charged in August of last year with defrauding contributors to a privately funded effort to build Mr. Trump’s wall along the Mexican border.

Mr. Bannon, working with a wounded Air Force veteran and a Florida venture capitalist, conspired to cheat hundreds of thousands of donors by falsely promising that their money had been set aside for new sections of wall, according to court documents.

The pardon of Mr. Bannon was notable because he had been charged with a crime but had yet to stand trial. An overwhelming majority of pardons and commutations granted by presidents have been for those convicted and sentenced.

Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021

Mr. Elliot, a California businessman, was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and inauguration before being tapped as deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. He pleaded guilty in October to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws as part of a covert campaign to influence the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.

Mr. Broidy admitted that he had accepted $9 million from Malaysian financier Jho Low, some of which was then paid to an associate, to push the Trump administration for the extradition of a Chinese dissident and to drop a case related to an embezzlement scheme from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that the United States has accused Mr. Low of engineering.

Mr. Levandowski, a Silicon Valley star and pioneer of self-driving car technology, was sentenced in August to 18 months in prison for stealing self-driving car trade secrets from Google. At the time of the sentencing, a federal judge ordered that Mr. Levandowski would not be required to serve his sentence until the coronavirus pandemic subsided.

He also agreed to pay more than $756,000 to Waymo, a self-driving business spun out of Google, as restitution.

Pardons and Commutation: Jan. 13 and Jan. 19, 2021

Several former political figures were among those granted clemency by Mr. Trump.

Mr. Kilpatrick, a former mayor of Detroit, had his sentence commuted. In 2013, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted of two dozen counts, including racketeering and extortion.

Mr. Hayes, the former chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, received a full pardon after being accused in 2019 of bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, along with several counts of making false statements. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to one year of probation.

Mr. Renzi, a former representative for Arizona, was pardoned by Mr. Trump. In 2013, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison in association with a bribery scheme involving an Arizona land swap deal.

Mr. Cunningham, a former representative for California, received a conditional pardon from Mr. Trump. In 2006, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison for taking $2.4 million in bribes from military contractors in return for smoothing the way for government contracts.

Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021

In December, the rapper Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty to having illegally carried a gold-plated .45-caliber Glock handgun and ammunition as a felon while traveling on a private jet in 2019.

Because of a prior gun conviction, he faced up to 10 years in prison. He received a full pardon.

In October of last year, Lil Wayne became the latest in a line of rappers to align themselves, however briefly, with the Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign, only to face criticism from fans and fellow artists.

Commutation: Jan. 19, 2021

The rapper Kodak Black, whose legal name is Bill Kapri (though he was born Dieuson Octave), was granted a commutation. In 2019, he was sentenced to nearly four years in prison for lying on background paperwork while attempting to buy guns. He had served nearly half of that time.

In addition to Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, another figure related to the world of hip-hop was also granted clemency by Mr. Trump. Desiree Perez, the chief executive officer of Roc Nation, the media company started by the rapper Jay-Z, was given a full pardon after being convicted in a drug conspiracy case in the 1990s.

Mr. Manafort, 71, had been sentenced in 2019 to seven and a half years in prison for his role in a decade-long, multimillion-dollar financial fraud scheme for his work in the former Soviet Union. He was released early from prison in May as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and given home confinement. Mr. Trump had repeatedly expressed sympathy for Mr. Manafort, describing him as a brave man who had been mistreated by the special counsel’s office.

Pardon: Dec. 23, 2020, Commutation: July 10, 2020

Mr. Stone, a longtime friend and adviser of Mr. Trump, was sentenced in February 2020 to more than three years in prison in a politically fraught case that put the president at odds with his attorney general. Mr. Stone was convicted of seven felony charges, including lying under oath to a congressional committee and threatening a witness whose testimony would have exposed those lies.

Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Stone’s sentence in July and then pardoned him in December. A White House statement said that Mr. Stone had been “treated very unfairly” and added that “pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation.”

Pardon: Dec. 23, 2020

Mr. Kushner, 66, the father-in-law of the president’s older daughter, Ivanka Trump, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Election Commission. He served two years in prison before being released in 2006.

Mr. Kushner’s prison sentence was a searing event in his family’s life.

The witness he was accused of retaliating against was his brother-in-law, whose wife, Mr. Kushner’s sister, was cooperating with federal officials in a campaign finance investigation into Mr. Kushner. Mr. Kushner was accused of videotaping his brother-in-law with a prostitute and then sending it to his sister.

The case was prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney Chris Christie, a longtime Trump friend who went on to become governor of New Jersey.

PARDON: DEC. 22, 2020

George Papadopoulos, a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to federal officials as part of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

Mr. Papadopoulos served 12 days in jail for lying to the F.B.I. about his contacts with Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential race. He later published a book portraying himself as a victim of a “deep state” plot to “bring down President Trump.”

Also pardoned was Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who was sentenced in April 2018 to 30 days in prison for lying to investigators for the special counsel’s office who were investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Three former Republican members of Congress were pardoned by Mr. Trump: Duncan Hunter of California, Chris Collins of New York and Steve Stockman of Texas.

Mr. Hunter was set to begin serving an 11-month sentence in January. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to one charge of misusing campaign funds. Prosecutors said he had funneled more than $150,000 from his campaign coffers to pay for a lavish lifestyle.

On Dec. 23, Mr. Trump pardoned Margaret Hunter, Mr. Hunter’s estranged wife, who had also pleaded guilty to charges of misusing campaign funds for personal expenses.

Mr. Collins, an early endorser of Mr. Trump, is serving a 26-month sentence after pleading guilty in 2019 to charges of making false statements to the F.B.I. and to conspiring to commit securities fraud. He admitted passing private information about an Australian drug company to his son to help him avoid financial losses.

Updated 

Jan. 20, 2021, 8:57 a.m. ET

Mr. Stockman was convicted in 2018 on charges of fraud and money laundering and was serving a 10-year sentence. He was charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for charity and using it to pay for personal expenses and his political campaigns.

Pardon: Nov. 25, 2020

Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down, was the only White House official to be convicted as part of the Trump-Russia investigation.

In a statement about Mr. Flynn’s pardon, White House officials said he never should have been prosecuted and that the president’s action had finally brought “to an end the relentless, partisan pursuit of an innocent man.”

PARDON: DEC. 22, 2020

Mr. Trump issued full pardons to Nicholas Slatton and three other former U.S. service members who were convicted on charges related to the killing of Iraqi civilians while they were working as security contractors for Blackwater, a private company, in 2007.

Mr. Slatten and the others — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard — were sentenced for their role in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad. The massacre that left one of the most lasting stains of the war on the United States. Among the dead were two boys, 8 and 11.

Mr. Slatten had been sentenced to life in prison after the Justice Department had gone to great lengths to prosecute him.

Pardon: Aug. 25, 2017

Joe Arpaio, an anti-immigration crusader who enjoyed calling himself “America’s toughest sheriff,” was the first pardon of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

Once one of the most popular — and divisive — figures in Arizona, Mr. Arpaio was elected sheriff of Maricopa County five times before he was ultimately charged with criminal contempt for defying a court order to stop detaining people solely on the suspicion that they were undocumented immigrants. Mr. Arpaio was pardoned less than a month after he was found guilty.

Conrad M. Black, a former press baron and friend of Mr. Trump’s, was granted a full pardon 12 years after his sentencing for fraud and obstruction of justice.

Mr. Black, who once owned The Chicago Sun-Times, The Jerusalem Post and The Daily Telegraph of London, among other newspapers, was convicted of fraud in 2007 with three other former executives of Hollinger International.

Mr. Black, who was released from prison in 2012, is the author of several pro-Trump opinion articles as well as a flattering book, “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.”

COMMUTATION: Feb. 18, 2020

Dinesh D’Souza received a presidential pardon after pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions in 2014. Mr. D’Souza, a filmmaker and author whose subjects often dabble in conspiracy theories, had long blamed his conviction on his political opposition to Mr. Obama.

In issuing his pardon, Mr. Trump said that Mr. D’Souza had been “treated very unfairly by our government,” echoing a claim the commentator has often made himself.

Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion plot. Mr. DeBartolo was prosecuted after he gave Edwin W. Edwards, the influential former governor of Louisiana, $400,000 to secure a riverboat gambling license for his gambling consortium.

Although Mr. DeBartolo avoided prison, he was fined $1 million and was suspended for a year by the N.F.L.

commutation: June 6, 2018; Pardon: Aug. 28, 2019

Alice Marie Johnson was serving life in a federal prison for a nonviolent drug conviction before her case was brought to Mr. Trump’s attention by the reality television star Kim Kardashian West.

The president’s decision to commute her sentence freed Ms. Johnson, who had been locked up in Alabama since 1996 on charges related to cocaine distribution and money laundering. Mr. Trump later pardoned Ms. Johnson on Aug. 28, 2019.

Pardons: 2018-20

Mr. Trump has issued posthumous pardons to three historical figures.

Jack Johnson, the first Black heavyweight boxing champion, was tarnished by a racially tainted criminal conviction in 1913 — for transporting a white woman across state lines — that haunted him well after his death in 1946. Mr. Trump pardoned him on May 24, 2018.

Susan B. Anthony, the women’s suffragist, was arrested in Rochester, N.Y., in 1872 for voting illegally and was fined $100. Mr. Trump pardoned her on Aug. 18, the 100th anniversary of the ratification of 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women.

Zay Jeffries, a metal scientist whose contributions to the Manhattan Project and whose development of armor-piercing artillery shells helped the Allies win World War II, was granted a posthumous pardon on Oct. 10, 2019. Jeffries was found guilty in 1948 of an antitrust violation related to his work and was fined $2,500.

Ten years ago, Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York City police commissioner, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.

Mr. Trump said he heard from more than a dozen people about pardoning Mr. Kerik, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer. Mr. Kerik’s rise to prominence dates to the 1993 campaign for mayor in New York City, when he served as Mr. Giuliani’s bodyguard and chauffeur. After the pardon was announced, Mr. Kerik expressed his gratitude to Mr. Trump on Twitter. “With the exception of the birth of my children,” he wrote, “today is one of the greatest days in my life.”

Pardon: April 13, 2018

I. Lewis Libby Jr., known as Scooter, was Vice President Dick Cheney’s top adviser before Mr. Libby was convicted in 2007 of four felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice, in connection with the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame.

Mr. Libby had maintained his innocence for years, and his portrayal as a victim of an unfair prosecution ultimately found favor with Mr. Trump.

Pardon: Nov. 15, 2019

Mr. Trump’s decision to clear three members of the armed services who had been accused or convicted of war crimes signaled that the president intended to use his power as the ultimate arbiter of military justice.

He ordered full pardons of Clint Lorance, a former Army lieutenant who was serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of two civilians, and Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, an Army Special Forces officer who was facing murder charges for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban bomb maker.

The president also reversed the demotion of Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who had been acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a lesser offense in a high-profile war crimes case.

All three had been championed by prominent conservatives who had portrayed them as war heroes unfairly prosecuted for actions taken in the heat and confusion of battle.

Michael R. Milken was the billionaire “junk bond king” and a well-known financier on Wall Street in the 1980s. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, though his sentence was later reduced to two. He also agreed to pay $600 million in fines and penalties.

Mr. Milken did not have a pardon or commutation application pending at the Justice Department’s pardons office, meaning that the president made that decision entirely without official department input. Among those arguing for Mr. Milken to be pardoned was Mr. Giuliani, who as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York prosecuted Mr. Milken.

Pardon: July 10, 2018

Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, were Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving five-year sentences for arson on federal land. Their cases inspired an antigovernment group’s weekslong standoff at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and brought widespread attention to anger over federal land management in the Western United States.

The occupation, led by the Bundy family, drew militia members who commandeered government buildings and vehicles in tactical gear and long guns, promising to defend the family. During his campaign, Mr. Trump played to that sense of Western grievance, and the pardon of the Hammonds was a signal to conservatives that he was sympathetic.

David H. Safavian, the top federal procurement official under President George W. Bush, was sentenced in 2009 to a year in prison for covering up his ties to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist whose corruption became a symbol of the excesses of Washington influence peddling. Mr. Safavian was convicted of obstruction of justice and making false statements.

Pardon: Feb. 18, 2020

Angela Stanton — an author, television personality and motivational speaker — served six months of home confinement in 2007 for her role in a stolen-vehicle ring. Her book “Life of a Real Housewife” explores her difficult upbringing and her encounters with reality TV stars.

Before her pardon, she gave interviews in which she declared her support for Mr. Trump. In announcing her pardon, the White House credited her with working “tirelessly to improve re-entry outcomes for people returning to their communities upon release from prison.”

Mr. Trump has pardoned a number of other people, including a construction executive whose family donated heavily to the president’s re-election effort and a man convicted of bank robbery who started a nonprofit that helps former prisoners.

  • Paul Pogue, a former owner of a Texas construction company, was pardoned on Feb. 18, 2020, for tax charges after his family contributed more than $200,000 to Mr. Trump’s re-election effort.

  • Ariel Friedler, a former executive of a software development company who pleaded guilty to conspiring to hack a competitor, secured a pardon on Feb. 18, 2020, with the help of Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey and a close ally of Mr. Trump’s.

  • Michael Chase Behenna, a former Army lieutenant, served five years in prison for fatally shooting an Iraqi man in American custody in 2008. Mr. Trump pardoned him on May 6, 2019. His case had “attracted broad support from the military, Oklahoma elected officials, and the public,” according to the White House.

  • Patrick James Nolan, a Republican former leader of the California State Assembly, pleaded guilty in 1994 to corruption charges and accepted a 33-month sentence. After his release, he became a supporter of criminal justice reform, according to the White House. Mr. Trump pardoned him on May 15, 2019.

  • Michael Anthony Tedesco, who was convicted of drug trafficking and fraud in 1990, was pardoned on July 29, 2019. President Obama had already pardoned Mr. Tedesco in 2017, but Mr. Trump’s action fixed a clerical error related to the pardoning of Mr. Tedesco’s fraud conviction.

  • Roy Wayne McKeever was arrested on charges of transporting marijuana from Mexico to Oklahoma in 1989, when he was 19, and was sentenced to one year in prison. Mr. Trump pardoned him on July 29, 2019. A White House statement called him “an active member of the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas.”

  • John Richard Bubala pleaded guilty to the improper use of federal property in 1990 and was pardoned on July 29, 2019. A White House statement said Mr. Bubala had been transferring automotive equipment to an Indiana town for maintenance and his “primary aim was to help the town.”

  • Chalmer Lee Williams was an airport baggage handler who was convicted on charges related to the theft and sale of weapons and was sentenced to four months in prison in 1995. The White House said in a statement that Mr. Williams had accepted responsibility for his actions. Mr. Trump pardoned him on July 29, 2019.

  • Rodney M. Takumi, who was arrested while working at an illegal gambling parlor in 1987, pleaded no contest and was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $250. Mr. Trump pardoned him on July 29, 2019. The White House said Mr. Takumi was the owner of a tax preparation franchise in the Navajo Nation.

  • Jon Donyae Ponder, who pleaded guilty to bank robbery in 2005, started a nonprofit that helps former prisoners after he was released from prison in 2009. Mr. Trump pardoned him on Aug. 25, 2020, shortly before the Republican National Convention entered its second night. The pardon was announced in a seven-minute video in which the president called Mr. Ponder’s life “a beautiful testament to the power of redemption.”

  • Two former Border Patrol agents, whose sentences for their roles in the shooting of an alleged drug trafficker had previously been commuted by President George W. Bush, were granted full pardons on Dec. 22.

Marie Fazio and Christina Morales contributed reporting.

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Trump pardons Steve Bannon, Elliott Broidy, others on final night time in White Home

Trump pardons Steve Bannon, Elliott Broidy, others on last night in White House

President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia.

Leah Millis | Reuters

President Donald Trump issued dozens of pardons on his last night at the White House, including one to his former campaign manager and ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon, who was accused of cheating on donors to allegedly close a border wall build Mexico.

Others who received some of Trump’s 73 pardons were great Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent last fall, and rapper Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to a gun charge last month

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served a 28-year prison sentence for fraud, has been commuted by Trump, as has Eliyahu Weinstein, who had 16 years left, in a case where he cheated hundreds serving a sentence of millions of dollars from victims in a New Jersey-based Ponzi program.

Another rapper, Kodak Black, who served a three-year prison sentence on gun charges, was also sentenced to prison. A total of 67 other people were convicted by Trump.

Trump did not apologize to himself or any of his adult children despite speculating he would, despite no pending federal criminal charges against either of them.

Bannon, former head of the conservative news site Breitbart, was arrested with several co-defendants in New York on federal charges last year but was still on trial in this case, where he was free on a $ 5 million bond.

He and the other defendants are accused of defrauding donors to a nonprofit group that allegedly intended to use the money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, a political obsession with Trump and many of his supporters.

Another pardon was Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer at Google’s self-driving car unit, who was sentenced to 18 months in prison last August for stealing more than 14,000 Google files before leaving the company to join Uber’s robocar efforts.

The judge in Levandowski’s case called it “the greatest trade secret crime I have ever seen”.

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon leaves Manhattan federal court after his wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy hearing on August 20, 2020 in New York.

Andrew Kelly | Reuters

Kenneth Kurson, a confidante of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, also received a pardon. Kurson, who was once the editor of a Kushner-owned newspaper in New York, was charged in Brooklyn federal court last year with cyberstalking and harassment of three people, including a former friend whom he blamed for breaking up his marriage.

Another recipient of a pardon was the conservative politician Paul Erickson, a former friend of the secret Kremlin agent Maria Butina. Erickson was sentenced to 7 years in prison last July for wire fraud and money laundering.

The pardons were the third major group of pardons Trump has issued to Joe Biden, who is due to be inaugurated as president on Wednesday, since losing his election in November.

In December, Trump pardoned the gallery of an associated criminal, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Republican political agent and long-time Trump friend Roger Stone, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law Charles Kushner, and former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.

Others Trump pardoned last month included four former Blackwater USA guards convicted of the murder of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007, disgraced ex-GOP Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and Philips Esformes, a Florida health facility owner convicted of prosecution said it was the largest healthcare fraud ever charged by the Justice Department.

Presidential pardons only apply to federal criminal convictions. Presidents do not have the power to excuse people for state crimes.

Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is currently under criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

The investigation, which originally focused on how the company recorded hush money payments to two women who claimed to have sex with Trump – which denies their allegations – has since been expanded to include questions about how the Trump organization values ​​real estate wealth.

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Trump pardons 15, together with folks convicted in Mueller probe

Trump pardons 15, including people convicted in Mueller probe

President Donald Trump on Tuesday apologized to 15 people, including two men convicted in the investigation by Special Envoy Robert Mueller and four former Blackwater US guards convicted of the 2007 murders of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.

Others who received pardons included two former Republican congressmen who admitted to having committed financial crimes.

Trump also commuted all or some of the criminal convictions of five other people as the president is nearing his final month in office.

One such person, Philip Esformes, owner of a health facility in South Florida, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in September 2019 for “the largest healthcare fraud ever indicted by the Justice Department”. Esformes, 52, is now being released from prison for Trump’s action.

Trump, who has sharply criticized Muller’s investigation into his 2016 campaign and its contacts with Russians, apologized to his former campaign foreign policy advisor, George Papadopoulos, who was convicted of making false statements during the investigation.

George Papadopoulos, former member of the foreign affairs committee of Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, poses for a picture before a television interview in New York, New York, the United States, on March 26, 2019.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

“Today’s apology helps correct the injustice that Mueller’s team has done to so many people,” Trump’s press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement to Papadopoulous.

The president also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, an attorney and Dutch national who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the Mueller investigation. Van der Zwaan was the first person convicted in the investigation and was sentenced to 30 days in prison in 2018.

Alex van der Zwaan leaves the U.S. District Court after his conviction in Washington on April 3, 2018.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Four former Blackwater security companies, Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard, who received pardons, opened fire on and around Nisur Square in Baghdad on September 16, 2007. According to the Justice Department, 14 civilians were killed, including two women and two boys, ages 11 and 9. At least 17 other victims were injured.

Slatten, who was convicted of murder, was released “without provocation,” according to the Justice Department. He has served a life sentence.

The other three men were convicted of manslaughter and other charges and were sentenced to 15 years in prison again last year, half of their original sentences.

In a statement, McEnany said that “the pardon for these four veterans has broad support from the public, including Pete Hegseth, a Fox News employee and a number of GOP Congressmen.

“In addition, prosecutors recently announced – more than 10 years after the incident – that the leading Iraqi investigator was heavily relied on by prosecutors to verify that there were no insurgent victims and to gather evidence , possibly had ties to insurgent groups herself, “McEnany said in her statement.

Other pardons include former California Congressman Duncan Hunter and New Yorker Chris Collins.

Former U.S. Representative Chris Collins (R-NY) is leaving federal court in New York City on October 1, 2019.

Drew Angerer | Getty Images

Collins, who last year pleaded guilty to crimes related to his son pointing to nonpublic information about a pharmaceutical company’s failed drug trial, was the first member of Congress to endorse Trump’s campaign as president in 2015. He served a 26-month sentence in October.

Hunter pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds in 2019 along with his wife, who together converted and stole more than $ 250,000 over several years. He was due to serve an 11 month sentence next month.

Another fallen GOP member of Congress, Steve Stockman of Texas, had the remainder of his 10-year prison sentence for misusing donations that were converted by the President. Stockman, 64, had served more than two years in that tenure and signed Covid-19 that year.

Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Condemned many of the pardons in a damning statement.

“I doubt government contractors who slaughtered civilians or slaughtered corrupt friends of Congress had the founders in mind when drafting the pardon,” said Blumenthal, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

“Most despicable is that President Trump is twisting that presidential power to reward allies who have broken the law about his conduct,” he said. “Donald Trump is leaving the presidency as he accepted it: without a hint of respect for the constitution and as a complete shame for his office.”

Trump also pardoned two former U.S. border guards, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, for their convictions for shooting and wounding an unarmed illegal alien who traded 700 pounds of marijuana in 2005. President George W. Bush had their sentences converted from 11 and 11 years to 12 years in 2009.

The pardons come after Trump refused to admit he lost the presidential election to Joe Biden, whose victory was confirmed by the electoral college last week. Trump’s loss sparked immediate speculation that he would reward allies and others with executive grace actions in his final weeks at the White House.

Trump has been particularly stingy when it comes to granting executive grace, which includes pardons and commutations, compared to previous presidents.

As of Tuesday, Trump had issued just 28 pardons and commuted the criminal convictions of 16 other people, a significantly lower rate than other one-year presidents, according to the Justice Department.

Trump’s pardons included those on financial scammer Michael Milken; Press Baron Conrad Black; former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapaio, convicted of contempt of court; Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former advisor to ex-Vice President Dick Cheney on obstruction of justice; Conservative Gadfly Dinesh D’Souza for Campaign Submission Fraud; and Ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik for Tax and Other Crimes.

In November, Trump apologized to his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, for making false statements to FBI agents.

In July, Trump commuted the 40-month sentence of Republican adviser Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress.

Among the beneficiaries of his commutation was former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who tried to sell an appointment to the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when that president became president.

Trump previously apologized for several deaths, including early 20th century black boxing champion Jack Johnson for the crime of crossing the state line with his white girlfriend and Susan B. Anthony, the 19th suffragette, who was charged with illegal elections was convicted.

Trump also pardoned the late scientist Zay Jeffries, who was convicted of anticompetitive behavior by Sherman in 1948 for violating the antitrust law. That year, President Harry Truman awarded him the President’s Medal of Merit for his work during World War II, which included contributions to the Manhattan Project.

Trump pardoned Alice Marie Johnson, a woman convicted of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, in August. The president had commuted Johnson’s life sentence two years earlier after lobbying reality TV star Kim Kardashian West on her behalf.

The only other president with a term in office in the past 30 years, Trump’s Republican compatriot George HW Bush, pardoned 74 people by comparison and issued commutations for three more.

Obama, who served two terms before Trump, pardoned 212 people, or more than six times the number Trump pardoned in half that time. Obama commuted the sentences of more than 1,700 people.

The last Republican to serve two terms, George W. Bush, pardoned 189 people and commuted 11 sentences.

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Politics

Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner

Trump pardons Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump issued 26 pardons on Wednesday night, including one to his son-in-law’s father, Jared Kushner, as well as to campaign manager Paul Manafort and Republican politician Roger Stone.

Trump’s recent pardon requests came a day after the president issued an initial wave of 15 pardons, a week after the electoral college confirmed he had lost the presidential election to Joe Biden.

“This is rotten to the core,” said Senator Ben Sasse, R-Nebraska, of the pardons announced Wednesday after Trump left the White House for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida would have.

In his six-word statement, Sasse’s office said Trump had “exercised his constitutional power to grant pardons to another tranche of offenders such as Manafort and Stone who have openly and repeatedly violated the law and harmed Americans.”

The 70-year-old Manafort was among the first in Trump’s inner circle to bring charges brought by Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and Trump campaign.

Manafort, convicted of counseling crimes in Ukraine, thanked Trump on Twitter for the pardon that came months after his early release from more than seven years’ imprisonment over concerns over the coronavirus pandemic.

“Words cannot fully convey how grateful we are,” wrote the longtime Republican.

Senator Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, a close ally of Trump, said in March 2019 that “the Manafort pardon would be seen as a political disaster for the president.”

“It may come a day later after the policy changes that you might want to consider a motion from him like everyone else, but now it would be a disaster,” Graham said at the time.

Manhattan prosecutors are still trying to prosecute Manafort for New York State crimes of mortgage fraud, conspiracy, and forgery of business records.

A judge last December prevented DA Cyrus Vance Jr. from bringing this case to court because it would violate the double risk rules, which protect people from being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.

Vance is appealing this decision.

Speaking of Trump’s pardon on Wednesday night, his spokesman Danny Frost said: “This action underscores the urgent need to hold Mr Manafort accountable for his alleged crimes against the New York people in our indictment, and we will pursue our appeals.”

Stone was convicted in November 2019 for lying under oath to Congress that he was pre-informed about the WikiLeaks disclosure of emails posted by Russians during the 2016 campaign by then-presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s campaign manager and the Democratic National Committee had been hacked.

Earlier this year, Trump commuted his longtime friend Stone’s three-year and four-month sentences, less than a week before the Republican agent was due to begin his prison sentence.

In July, the White House named Stone “a victim of the Russian joke” and someone who “would be at medical risk” if he were detained.

Roger Stone, former campaign advisor to US President Donald Trump, arrives at federal court on February 20, 2020 in Washington, USA, where he is to be sentenced.

Leah Millis | Reuters

Real estate mogul Charles Kushner, whose son Jared Kushner is a senior White House adviser, was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to 18 cases of tax evasion, witness manipulation and illegal campaign donations.

Among other things, Kushner had hired a prostitute to lure his own brother-in-law William Schulder into a sexual tryst that was secretly videotaped and then sent to the husband’s wife, Charles Kushner’s sister. The stunt was supposed to prevent Schulder from witnessing an investigation into Kushner for illegal campaign contributions.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, a key ally of Trump’s persecution of Charles Kushner, said in an interview last year that Kushner committed “one of the most heinous, disgusting crimes I’ve prosecuted as a US attorney.”

Christie and Jared Kushner, who are married to Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, had a cool relationship at best because of Christie’s law enforcement.

Christie was abruptly sacked as manager of Trump’s transition efforts after Trump won the 2016 election, a move widely viewed by Jared Kushner as lagging behind.

Charles Kushner and Jared Kushner attend an event at Lord & Taylor in New York City on March 28, 2012.

Patrick McMullan | Patrick McMullan | Getty Images

Announcing Kushner’s pardon, the White House said, “Since his conviction in 2006, Mr. Kushner has been serving important philanthropic organizations and causes such as Saint Barnabas Medical Center and United Cerebral Palsy.”

“These record of reform and charity overshadow Mr. Kushner’s conviction and two-year prison sentence for filing false tax returns, retaliating with witnesses and giving false testimony to the FEC,” the White House said.

Trump also pardoned Margaret Hunter, the estranged wife of former MP Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., Who pleaded guilty to misusing campaign funds for personal expenses.

Duncan Hunter, convicted of the same crimes in the same case, had been pardoned by Trump the night before in a first wave of pardons from the president, who refuses to admit that he lost the presidential election to Biden.

Trump also commuted all or part of the criminal convictions of three people.

Two of them were Mark Shapiro and Irving Stitsky, who were each sentenced to 85 years in prison for their key roles in a real estate-related Ponzi program that defrauded more than 250 people of $ 23 million. The judge in Stitsky’s case called him a “die-hard cheater”.

A statement from White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany announcing the conversion of the remaining prison term for Shapiro and Stitsky stated that their sentences were more than ten times the imprisonment years offered to Shapiro in a plea he rejected , and nearly ten times the prison sentence, pleading for Stitsky.

McEnany’s testimony downplayed the gravity of their crimes, saying, “Messrs. Shapiro and Stitsky started a real estate investment company but hid their previous criminal convictions and installed a straw CEO. The company lost millions to its investors due to the 2008 financial crisis.”

Trump on Tuesday apologized to 15 people, including two men convicted as part of Special Envoy Robert Mueller’s investigation, 2016 campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, and Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, as well as four former Blackwater USA guards who The US convicted the killing of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in 2007.

Others who received pardons that evening included former GOP MP Chris Collins from Buffalo, New York, who illegally alerted his son to a failed drug trial in a pharmaceutical company and made the son and others share shares in the company prior to that information throwing became public.

Another pardon on Tuesday was Philip Esformes, owner of a health facility in South Florida, who was in the first few years of a 20-year prison sentence for prosecutors saying it was “the biggest healthcare fraud ever charged by the Justice Department.” “”

Prior to Tuesday, Trump had issued just 28 pardons – 13 less than his Tuesday and Wednesday total – making him the stingiest U.S. president of modern times in terms of executive mercy.

However, after losing the national referendum to Biden, Trump pardoned Michael Flynn, the retired Army Lieutenant General who served as his first national security adviser. Flynn pleaded guilty three years ago to lying to FBI agents about the nature of his talks with Russia’s ambassador to the United States, weeks before Trump was told in January 2017.

Flynn had been trying to reverse his admission of guilt since last year, and this year he received support for those efforts from the Justice Department, which in an extremely rare move called a federal judge to dismiss the case despite Flynn’s admission of his crime.

Trump’s other previous pardons included financial fraudster Michael Milken; Press Baron Conrad Black; former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arapaio, convicted of contempt of court; Lewis “Scooter” Libby, former advisor to ex-Vice President Dick Cheney on obstruction of justice; Conservative Gadfly Dinesh D’Souza for Campaign Submission Fraud; and Ex-New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik for Tax and Other Crimes.

Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Wrote in a tweet Wednesday night: “Once a party allows pardon power to become a tool of criminal enterprise, its threat to democracy outweighs its usefulness as an instrument of justice.”

“It is time to remove the pardon power from the constitution,” added Murphy.

– Dan Mangan reported from New York.