Trump’s Pardons

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ASPartOfMe
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23 Dec 2020, 9:17 am

Trump announces wave of pardons, including Papadopoulos and former lawmakers Hunter and Collins

Quote:

President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a wave of lame duck pardons, including two for men who pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's investigation, as well as ones for Republican allies who once served in Congress and military contractors involved in a deadly shooting of Iraqi civilians.

The pardons of former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, former US congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and the four Blackwater guards involved in the Iraq massacre kick off what is expected to be a flurry of pardons and commutations in the coming weeks as Trump concludes his term.
Also included in the batch announced on Tuesday are Alex van der Zwaan, the Dutch lawyer who was sentenced to 30 days in jail after pleading guilty to lying to Mueller investigators; two Border Patrol agents convicted in 2006 of shooting and wounding an unarmed undocumented immigrant and then covering it up; and several people convicted of non-violent drug crimes serving lengthy sentences.

The pardons came at the recommendation of Trump allies in Congress and, in some cases, the conservative media.

The announcement Tuesday also included commuting the remaining prison term of former Rep. Steve Stockman, a Texas Republican who was convicted by a jury in Texas of almost two dozen felonies, including fraud and money laundering.

Others included in the clemency batch on Tuesday were pardons for Alfonso Costa, a dentist who pleaded guilty to health care fraud; Alfred Lee Crum, who pleaded guilty in 1952 to illegally distilling moonshine; Weldon Angelos, who was sentenced to 55 years in prison for selling marijuana and carrying a handgun; Philip Lyman, a county commissioner in Utah who was sentenced to 10 days in jail related to his protest of ATV restrictions on federal land; and Otis Gordon, who was convicted of possession with intent to distribute.
Philip Esformes, a Florida nursing home mogul convicted of paying bribes in a Medicare fraud case, also had some of his sentence commuted by Trump.

Trump also reduced the sentences of three women -- Crystal Munoz, Tynice Nichole Hall and Judith Negron -- convicted of drug crimes at the recommendation of Johnson, who has worked on behalf of other inmates after the President commuted her own sentence.

The pardons give forgiveness to two early defendants who pleaded guilty and served prison time in the Mueller investigation: 2016 campaign foreign policy adviser Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan, who was part of a major investigation by Mueller into illegal foreign lobbying efforts and the Ukrainian and Russian connections of Trump campaign adviser Paul Manafort.

Both Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during the Russia investigation. And neither provided Mueller with any meaningful cooperation, prosecutors said.

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Misslizard
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23 Dec 2020, 10:19 am

So disgusting when people are doing time for weed.

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GGPViper
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23 Dec 2020, 12:52 pm

OK, so Trump wants to send in the National Guard against a few rioters, but he has no problem with letting a bunch of mass murderers (the 4 Blackwater security guards) walk away free?

Nice to see that the "Law and Order" president has his priorities straight...

GGPViper
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23 Dec 2020, 8:16 pm

And now Trump has also pardoned Paul Manafort, Roger Stone and Charles Kushner (Jared's father).
https://www.npr.org/2020/12/23/94982082 ... es-kushner

Kraichgauer
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23 Dec 2020, 10:10 pm

The whole idea of Presidential pardons was intended to right legal injustices. There is nothing of that here. Rather, it's more a matter of Trump bailing out political henchmen who had kept their lips sealed, or doling out political favors for allies. Eric Prince, the owner of Blackwater, had been involved with the Russian scandal, and is the brother of Trump's Education Secretary, Ditzy DeVos, so it's no surprise that Trump would have pardoned the dirt bag war criminals who had worked for Prince.

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AardvarkGoodSwimmer
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23 Dec 2020, 10:13 pm

GGPViper wrote:

It’s more the worship of “toughness.”

I’d love to read a good writer talking about genuine examples of tough but fair, contrasted with stuff like this Blackwater example which is anything but.

Misslizard
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23 Dec 2020, 10:31 pm

He winding up to the big one, himself.

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Cornflake
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25 Dec 2020, 5:27 pm

^ Surely someone will step in and disallow that? (the Republican Trump party won't)
I thought it was well established that someone can't be a judge in their own case.

And then I suppose we'll get the pre-emptive pardons for his demon brood.
The whole thing is a sickening abuse of the Presidency.

Especially pardoning this seething, spitting criminal mess:

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Tross
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25 Dec 2020, 6:54 pm

Does it say a lot that this doesn't bother me nearly as much as it should? I mean, this is all bad, and shows how reprehensible and unqualified to lead a country that oversized Oompa Loompa is, but compared to his actions and inactions killing almost a third of a million people, this just seems like the diarrhea icing on the turd of a cake that has been his presidency. It wasn't a good cake to begin with, and ended up being lethal to a lot of people. I figured Donald would find a way to go out on a bad note, so I'm not disappointed. All this news has accomplished is making me that much more glad that he's out soon.

Kraichgauer
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25 Dec 2020, 9:23 pm

Cornflake wrote:

Stone is a total and complete embarrassment.

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Shahunshah
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25 Dec 2020, 10:48 pm

Honestly, this is pretty par for the course with many politicians. I can remember last year when the defeated governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin used his final month to pardon sex offenders, murderers, and rapists at the behest of his donors.

The US is mostly an oligarchy and you can't throw an oligarch out of office without that person first getting a lump sum and having their criminal buddies get let off free.

And hey Trump pardoned war criminals and people engaging in police brutality too. Well, that shouldn't surprise us. It's not like authoritarians are after a "heroic cop", they just want someone to beat the s**t out of some black people.

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26 Dec 2020, 8:54 am

Kraichgauer wrote:

Stone is a total and complete embarrassment.

Absolutely, along with his enablers.

Watching all this unfold from the other side of the pond is like watching a car crash in slow motion - both horrifying and fascinating, although it's also deeply saddening to see how the Orange Toddler, The Incredible Sulk, has debased the office of the presidency and pulled America so low.
Truly, everything Trump touches dies.

The silver lining is that January 20, 2021 will finally put an end to it - and hopefully private citizen Trump, under the weight of the impending lawsuits. There's no free pardon for those...

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Tempus Fugit
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26 Dec 2020, 9:14 am

Only 26 days to go.

Kraichgauer
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26 Dec 2020, 5:46 pm

Cornflake wrote:

Kraichgauer wrote:

Stone is a total and complete embarrassment.

I have to admit, I laughed at "The Incredible Sulk!" Never heard that before, but it certainly fits.

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goldfish21
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27 Dec 2020, 1:23 pm

Last related headline I read said he pardoned a bunch of mercenary war criminals from Blackwater. (Who I assume murdered civilians in Afghanistan or some place.)

What a dirtbag waste of skin.

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Misslizard
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27 Dec 2020, 2:23 pm

Draining the swamp? More like he’s restocked it.Catch and release with war criminals.

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