I went offline last night as yet another Christmas gift to myself, thinking “what news could really break days before Christmas?” Well, Donald Trump is determined to be the absolute worst during this holiday season. He’s probably jealous of the attention the baby Jesus is getting. So of course Trump had to issue 20 pardons and commutations last night. And I sort of think he’s going in chronological order – he’s pardoning people for sh-t they did in 2016 and 2017 at the moment. Wait until we get to the crimes committed by his people in 2018-2020.
In an audacious pre-Christmas round of pardons, President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to two people who pleaded guilty in the special counsel’s Russia inquiry, four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress.
Mr. Trump nullified more of the legal consequences of an investigation into his 2016 campaign that he long labeled a hoax. He granted clemency to contractors whose actions in Iraq set off an international uproar and helped turn public opinion further against the war there. And he pardoned three members of his party who had become high-profile examples of public corruption.
The 15 pardons and five commutations were made public by the White House in a statement on Tuesday evening. They appeared in many cases to have bypassed the traditional Justice Department review process — more than half of the cases did not meet the department’s standards for consideration — and reflected Mr. Trump’s long-held grudges about the Russia investigation, his instinct to side with members of the military accused of wrongdoing and his willingness to reward political allies.
One of the most notable pardons went to George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and who pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to federal officials as part of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III. Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2018 in connection with the special counsel’s inquiry, was also pardoned. Both he and Mr. Papadopoulos served short prison sentences.
The Mueller-related pardons are a signal of more to come for people caught up in the investigation, according to people close to the president.
This sh-t is gross, but I’ll be honest… these are the hors d’oeuvre pardons – the treason entrees are still to come. If Papadopoulos and van der Zwaan are getting pre-Christmas pardons, then Rudy Giuliani, Ivanka and Jared will be pardoned by New Year’s. As for Papadopoulos, wasn’t he one of the go-betweens with the Trump campaign and Russian operatives? The fact that he was only charged with making false statements is remarkable on its own.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
What is not said in the same breath is the ‘lame duck’ execution of 5 black men in the last year or so of his presidency. This man murdered black men on death-row, two of which had ‘unsafe convictions’ whilst pardoning white murderers.
It makes me wonder if the death row murders were not political to hide procedural irregularities.
Remember when he campaigned like hell to get the PLAINLY FACTUALLY INNOCENT Central Park 5 executed? And to this day believes they should still be in prison. Yeah, I think he just wants to see dead black and brown people.
I know there is at least one more execution in the works, that one a white woman. All of them are honestly just plain disgusting. Can’t wait until Biden is in office and can stop them from happening.
Edited to say I see someone below linked to an article about the upcoming one I referred to – Lisa Montgomery.
The worst pardons are the ones for the guards who murdered 15 Iranian civilians.
Came to say the same. That’s the one that’s getting headlines overseas.
The Blackwater guys? I read that Betsy Devos’s brother is the owner of Blackwater so ya..
He was the owner, but he sold it to a larger group. He could actually use a pardon himself. The last I read, The FBI was investigating him for “weaponizing crop dusters.” It’s a headline I’ve found difficult to forget.
Erik Prince is a war criminal. I sincerely hope he is one day brought to justice.
Blackwater is a repugnant dystopian nightmare. Private militias are shit that should be illegal. It terrifies me to think of what they’re doing off the grid that we don’t know about.
So true. Everything I have read about them is chilling af. It shouldn’t b surprising but it’s still shocking to realize how Trump has attracted the absolute worst of humanity.
The name alone is straight out of a dark dark work of fiction. Who names their organization Blackwater???
That one jumped out at me as well. Of course Blackwater employees get pardoned. Of course.
Iraqi civilians
I read that the youngest was 9 years old. Christ, I could scream.
I’m not sure if any of you have read the NY Times piece about Lisa Montgomery and the hopes for her pardon but it’s incredible. Very tough going (TW for rape, extreme violence) but it’s an important piece of writing. Capital punishment should not exist in any decent, compassionate society.
(As an aside, Rachel Louise Snyder, the journalist who wrote this article on Lisa Montgomery, also wrote a non-fiction book called No Visible Bruises. It’s probably the best book I’ve ever read on domestic abuse.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/18/opinion/sunday/lisa-montgomery-execution.html
That was a terrible crime but I had no idea how terrible Lisa Montgomery’s life had been. Her cousin was a sheriff and therefore a mandated reporter, he failed to report her rape. If he’s still working as a sheriff, he shouldn’t be – he’s failed his obligation as a mandated reporter and as a law officer he aided and abetted her rapist. Her mother aided and abetted her rapist. Child Protective Services and the DAs office in the state where this happened failed to act. What were the consequences for them? Ineptitude so bad it looks conspiratorial. How could she possibly care about anyone else when NO ONE seemed to care about her in ways that counted?
January is going to be horrible. A continuation AND escalation of 2020.
Yes. Although one tidbit just gave me a momentary bit of hope. Apparently the WH staff was notified that their last paychecks would be Jan 19. But then they were told to disregard the email, which means Trump must have caught wind of it. But clearly people are preparing to vacate the WH even if Trump is not.
I don’t know why anyone would be surprised. This is Trump. He has no better angels.
He really doesn’t. The man is just all id. I believe just about every accusation i’ve ever heard about him. He’s done nothing to show otherwise.
He really is satan’s evil twin.
I really have to stop thinking he has reached bottom. He just keeps surprising me with how gross, dishonest, unethical & downright shitty he can be. I doubt he will be prosecuted after he leaves office but if he could be, if he is hassled at all for ANY of the crimes & illegal behavior he has committed flagrantly while President, I would dance a freakin jig.
There is no bottom. There never was.
Sadly I don’t believe they will go after him though. Can’t upset the status quo and how would that help the country heal and other such bullshit that’ll just set a precedent for the next competent fascist
Sickening, absolutely sickening.
My husband and I were discussing the pardons last night, and we don’t understand how if Papadopoulos served his short time sentence – why does he need to be pardoned? What good does it do?
The pardons are basically the mob boss rewarding his minions.
I think the point is that then he doesn’t have to say he was convicted of a federal offense on future applications, security checks etc.
Thank you both DU and Becks1, it gets a bit confusing because we also heard that they don’t have to accept the pardon but if they do, it’s like they are admitting guilt. Maybe that applied to Nixon and we (husband and I) are getting it all mixed up.
Kinda of moot point to be pardoned so your name is clean for future endeavors when your name is all over the paper and internet. I think it’s more of a sign that they protect their own and will do so. So Trump is basically saying: He did some of my dirty work, but I am coming through and pardoning him.
There are some jobs, particularly state and federal, for which a person cannot be hired if convicted of a felony or served any prison time. A pardon wipes that clean.
True, I did not think of that reasoning. I would say: who would hire them in a government job – but humans cease to disappoint and amaze me.
The only good part of this is that persons who have been pardoned cannot take the 5th. So if Trump or his family are charged by the feds or by a state, the people he has pardoned will have to testify. The campaign criminals are cowards: with the exception of Stone they all pleaded guilty to minimize sentence. I hope they all sing like canaries in any future court proceedings.
The bad part: this is only part one in a series of pardons … Gates and Manafort will get a Christmas present too, and Weisselberg, Paxton and Pecker will get ones to protect them from future prosecution. And then, when you think it can’t get any worse, he will pardon himself and his family from future prosecution.
If he pardons himself and his family I seriously hope it will be contested. If he succeeds that will set a disastrous precedent.
He would pardon Charles Manson if he weren’t dead.
Trump’s pardoning shitty people? Who would have thought?!?!? /sarcasm
Andrew really should have met with the FBI. He’d be getting his pardon right about now.
I never understood why Americans champion their constitution like they do. They have a country where tens of thousands of people die each year by guns, but nothing is done because they have the constitutional right to own guns and even military grade weapons because, it seems, they are scared of their own government. They also put a ridiculous amount of power into the hands of one person, who isn’t even elected by the majority of the population, and it now seems that he has the constitutional right to get someone to commit a crime and then just pardon then. What will you lot do when one of his acolytes puts a bullet in someone’s head to benefit Trump and he gets to walk away? There are still a few weeks, it could happen.
Same. This “greatest country in the world with the best democracy and the most freedom ever” shit has got to stop.
America (and Americans) are far from perfect. The Trump era has shown us that. Too many things in our political system on people doing the “right thing”, and it was far too easy for a fascist like Trump to get power.
BUT the Constitution is also the reason Trump has not been able to overthrow the election that will kick him out on January 21st. For all of its many flaws, including the first amendment, there is that. We can’t control what his followers will do when he leaves, but the much, much worse option would have been for him to stay.
we can also thank that constitution for being the reason our military doesn’t abet in this coup attempt because they pledged to the document and not to the man in power
@Sigmund
BUT Constitutions in most countries protect election results as well, I’m sure, so it’s not actually unique in that. In fact, this type of circus is unthinkable in most developed countries. They make the process a lot more swift, leaving less room for all of this nonsense. So, that’s not a redeeming quality, but sort of an expectation. Yet no other country screams “Constitution” as much as Americans do.
@Larisa A constitution means as little or as much as the country supporting it. North Korea has a constitution, too. Doesn’t mean Kim Jong-un can be voted out.
America’s government and constitution have a lot of issues. We’ve seen how much, and it should alarm Americans. But the Constitution is what’s going to ensure Biden is our next president, too. People came out in droves and voted, including black voters who had to stand in line for HOURS to get their vote counted. Americans trusted that in the end, our election would hold. And it did and it will. That’s something to be celebrated, even if the Constitution is very flawed.
I think that “at least it made sure the man with the most votes is going to govern…. this time” is not the best endorsement. I’m not American and us Germans are also rather proud of our Grundgesetz but we don’t worship it. I think that’s what OP was getting at. I think most non-US citizens will just never understand American exceptionalism and many of its byproducts. It is what it is.
@emmy, rest easy, because I’m an American and *I* don’t understand American exceptionalism, either. Admittedly, that probably comes from having been at the bottom of almost every social structure in my life.
I’ve spent my life looking up and have first hand knowledge that ‘the land of the free,’ doesn’t mean the land of the safe. Far too many people fall through the cracks, both at home and abroad due to our influence, for me to believe we’re anywhere near the best.
It’s helped a bit during this four year long nightmare. I simply didn’t have any illusions to hold on to, so they couldn’t be shattered by everything that’s happened.
The American exceptionalists are just those Americans who yell the loudest. Not all of us are like that. Yup, we know our system is flawed, no clearer demonstration than the last 4 years.
Papadopoulus is going to need another pardon; he is actively trying to incite violent sedition on Twitter.
The pardon of the Blackwater mass murderers illustrates that this presidential power needs to be revisited.
My mom (who immigrated to the US) keeps saying that the social media is really the problem due to EVERYONE having a speaker box and a megaphone. Twitter needs to put some limits on what can be posted. We have a man who was found guilty, did his time, and is pardoned but they allow him to spew stupidity that may endanger others. Enough already.
What a lovely Christmas gift.
It’s really too bad Biden can’t remove these pardons when he becomes President.
Pardon rules need to change. A President should not be able to pardon anyone connected to his administration/campaign. And should be especially unable to pardon crimes related to his administration/campaign.
My hope though is that his stubborn conviction he won the election prevents him from getting to the last pardons on his list, which will be for his family.
And himself. Oh yes, he will pardon himself. He will go there.
Exactly Rapunzel, as a non American, this style/level of pardons from a departing head of state are crazy!
As an American, let me say that I also don’t get it.
Also American and honestly, the founding fathers just didn’t forsee how crooked some Presidents might be, or how cultish their followers might be.
Back in founding father days, The Reynolds pamphlet was enough to tank Hamilton. Now, it would probably have won him the election.
But I thought he “barely knew” George Papadopoulos; he was just a level above coffee fetching boy?
This creature is vermin. I want someone to snare him in a painful trap. Nothing he does between now and January 20 will surprise me. Then again, I don’t have his sick mind, so yeah, it won’t surprise me. It will shock me.
Thank you both DU and Becks1, it gets a bit confusing because we also heard that they don’t have to accept the pardon but if they do, it’s like they are admitting guilt. Maybe that applied to Nixon and we (husband and I) are getting it all mixed up.
Kinda of moot point to be pardoned so your name is clean for future endeavors when your name is all over the paper and internet. I think it’s more of a sign that they protect their own and will do so. So Trump is basically saying: He did some of my dirty work, but I am coming through and pardoning him……Www.worksnew.com
I hope this blows up in their faces: accepting a pardon is an admission of guilt. These yahoos can’t claim the 5th in court anymore. I hope they really live to regret it.
It’s going to be a long road to January 20th… This is so disheartening, especially the Blackwater pardons.