How. Much. More.
6
Is Roger Stone, that paragon of virtue next? I absolve you! You're free friend! Hee hee hee.
3
The president should pardon Hillary while he’s on a roll
3
A criminal who pardons other like minded criminals. Why is any sane person surprised by this? Looks like the the white house swamp just got a little deeper and smellier.
6
Maybe Blagovich could become the next Attorney General.
3
What’s next, pardoning Madoff, Kilpatrick or Charles Manson.
2
Are there any mafiosi still in jail so he can pardon them as well????
2
Guess if Epstein was alive he would get a pardon, or maybe Manson also. Might as well just let them all loose back into society. Free them all! Let Trump sort them out! (Sarcasm)
1
Disgusting.
Disgusted.
2
My friends, the rule of law can erode up just as well as it can erode down. What I mean is that for each one of these suits who gets away with crimes that harm all of us, there’s just that much less holding all of us back from committing crimes that harm them. And there are so many more of us than there are of them.
As published recently in this paper, getting individualized location information is child’s play. Why should governments have all the fun with surveillance, tracking, discipline and punishment?
I know I’m not the only one who feels this way. These guys are gonna wish they’d stayed in jail.
3
Enlarging the swamp and turning it into a cesspool.
4
Free Bernie Madoff. A true white American criminal hero.
1
Re-impeach this tyrant!!!!
1
Trumps America, Gotham or is it Gomorrah?
3
You (America) voted for him.
You (America) are responsible for him.
You (America) will have to answer for him and his deeds.
You (America) are screwed...
12
This is the typical Trump idea of clemency and the proper people to liberate, other cons and grifters like him. It's laughable but for the fact that most of them committed corrupt and illegal activities and knew they were acting against the law. They were not young desperate people in the drug business, regardless of that illegality and dangerous activity, nor were they naive or ignorant, nor careless, nor drunk or high, other than on power and money. This exemplifies the manner Trump considers law and order, health and truth-in-advertising (Trump University, steaks, buildings, and contracts), alliances, the law, the Constitution.
15
If I were a corrupt government official, I would consider this to be a green light to proceed with my self-serving and illegal practices. This must be what it feels like to be a Russian citizen, watching in frustration while the elected officials run amok and clean out the coffers.
12
Just another means. Trump is using to rewrite history and eradicate Obama and prior administrations.
5
So maybe these appalling, flagrant pardons by Trump indicate he does have some empathy and compassion after all--for corrupt, law-breaking, criminals just like him. Birds of a feather, and all that.
Question: Prior to Trump becoming president--thanks to the Electoral College--how many times has Trump been convicted of crimes by the courts?
Judge a man by the company he keeps--or the politicians he votes for.
3
Trump is thinking of where he's going to land once he leaves office......and wants to create a path by saying white collar crimes are not that important and should not be penalized harshly. He never obeyed the rule of law....why should he have respect for it, yet alone honor it!
7
All committed felony crimes. All deserve to serve out their sentences. No justice!
5
So if you're famous or rich or Fox News decides to publicize you, our new chief law enforcement officer will free you from jail. And they call that populism?
8
Trump is demonstrating that ultimate power flows from him alone, like any other dictator.
5
There was no quid pro quo.
Send me money and relax.
I've got your back.
3
Blago is an interesting pick. He was definitely guilty, served 8 yrs, but I think there’s more to the story. Democrats usually circle the wagon, but not for him. I wonder if he was the patsy for selling Obama’s senate seat? Like I said, very interesting.
1
Trump is a master predator. He has perfected the subtle art of grooming and conditioning the masses. He knows that his ability to lie, exaggerate and manipulate the truth greatly exceeds his supporters abilities to reason. He has mastered the art of double-speak, false equivalencies and doing "small favors." Once he's reelected with the help of trolls dividing the Democratic party (Bernie vs. whomever) he will continue to take revenge on his perceived enemies, McCarthy style. He will extened his powers and the office of the presidency while he wrings the necks of every governmental institution in America. Only then will the masses wake up.
8
This should answer any question in your mind whether or not Trump is a crook, a low-life, a swindler, and a tax cheat. He is reflected in every pardon or commutation.
8
As a resident of a state with the dubious distinction of having two former governors doing time simultaneously, all one can say to Rod Blagojevich is "welcome home, you big crook."
3
And this one, just as bad, is flying under the radar....
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article240404271.html?fbclid=IwAR2wFifgFhAEMHoqZUylLr3P1VujHjYEz5zbh2eS4yjGViR6o0w0ipZ4g3Q
Next stop for Blagojevich, Kerik and Milken is the White House for a medal for freedom ceremony.
5
Public Official A by WBEZ Chicago is a great podcast about Rod Blagojevich and his wife, Patti’s, efforts to get Trump’s attention (using Fox News).
4
And “y’all”, not a $40 red hat in the bunch...
1
Seems this paper did not view bribery as that big a deal:
Feb 6, 2016. “Don’t be so fast to judge him, at least according to the low bar that football sometimes sets for behavior. DeBartolo didn’t physically harm anyone, or gamble on his team’s games. He was indicted for failing to report an extortion attempt by the former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards. In trying to secure a riverboat gambling license, DeBartolo had agreed to pay (and did pay) oEdwards $400,000, in crisp $100 bills. In Louisiana, some might say that was business as usual back then.”
Ah, rich white dude crime —it ain’t really criminal after all.
2
Why are we surprised by this? Just at the acquittal from the senate was expected this isn't any further of a reach by a president that I call Quisling. Remember him?
2
White rich men are liberated from jail while Mexican kids die in cages on the border. But don't blame the President: nearly one half of the nation and half its representatives are in near complete support of this regime.
A morally bankrupt, divided, and lost nation we are.
414
@josh
You are too kind. I could think of other words to describe what we have become.
31
@josh
The message:
Cheat for me and I’ll set you free.
27
@josh "morally bankrupt" Well, the right side of the aisle sure is.
8
Rachael Maddow has questioned the attempt of SDNY's investigation of Trumps business connections in the state of New York. It was at this time that Jess Session's resigned and set Trump off in a rage. In came Barr, who immediately challenged the merits of this case only to have the investigation drop off the cliff.
8
I think it's safe to say we live in an oligarchy. The only way this will change is if we vote him out of office.
12
@T SB
It's not just about Donald Trump. In 2016, we had a choice between two oligarchies, and for better or worse, the people chose one of the pair.
I think it's unrealistic to believe that Hillary Clinton was going to change this aspect of the last thirty-five years of politics and commerce in this country.
2
Then as now the political air was also thick with a desire to punish the wealthy. Such vapors are easy to ride, but they don’t equate with justice. In the long run of history, Mike Milken has done more good for more people with his financial innovations and philanthropy than all the scribes of envy politics ever will. WSJ
2
The likely investigators were mostly F.B.I. I would imagine and they are bigger criminals than the criminals killing people, inventing crimes called "Scams", and conducting warrantless searches and burglaries. I learned the hard way. And they know what I think.
I’ll bet they don’t care what you think. And perhaps much of this come from growing too many conspiracy sites- I wonder where you get your information. These aren’t made up “scams”- all of these felons broke the law and deserved their sentences. All are being pardoned on the whims of a president who, having done many of the same sorts of things, tax fraud, shady financial dealings, using his charity as a piggy band, paying hush money to porn stars, using a team of lawyers as a cudgel to rip off honest contractors, ripping off students enrolled in his phony University etc, he identifies with this cast of wealthy low lifes. To pardon them is in effect, to pardon himself.
7
The mob known as Donald Trump rolls on.
Get with it America--this is organized criminal behavior. It is mob. And most of these people have lots of money behind them and will go on to live fairly nice lives.
While about a third of the general population is either in or headed towards poverty and suffering.
We are actually worse off than the 1930's it just does not feel like it to most of the country--yet.
10
205 million dollar Medicare fraud, and the parole rational is she's a model prisoner. Seriously.
9
Law and disorder. No law for friends and disorder for the country.
7
Freeing Blago is one of the only good and kind-hearted things that Trump has done.
3
I don't understand the politics/optics of this. Does Mr. Trump believe that his supporters are fine with pardoning felons and frauds who steal from virtually everyone? Do Mr. Trump's Senate Collaborators like Mr. McConnell and Mr. Graham think this will help them be re-elected in November?
Even I, as cynical as I am at 67 years old, have a hard time believing that red-state Americans will support such brazen corruption -- both venal and political.
Or do the key players in the Trumpist orbit already know that there won't be a November election?
7
White-collar criminals and government officials who abused their office are OK with Trump. They've been treated too harshly, in his view.
This is exactly the opposite of the approach we should apply.
Abuse of office is a very high crime and deserves a very serious punishment.
Financial criminals harm vast numbers of people. For nothing more than money, and usually not enough to have any real impact on their already rich lives - often just for the status of having MORE. If you consider the overall impact and lack of compassion towards others, these are heinous crimes and also deserve serious punishment.
7
Trump sees himself in each of these convicted white collar criminals. That’s why he’s pardoning them.
4
This and the Roger Stone anxiety are "tells" from Donald.
He is very worried about potential prosecutions hanging over his head.
He's actually projected himself onto these white collar criminals and is pardoning himself.
12
A green light to corruption in government. (At least for people who can get their story on Fox News.)
7
These are his people. He relates to their "struggle."
9
how can this be reported without also reporting how much these individuals contributed to his election?
5
@Iced Tea-party ....or collectively are associated with organized crime
2
Why is Bernie Madoff not included in this august list of personalities?
1
I wonder how many of these people donated to his reelection fund!
2
And what does Blagojevich and Milken have on Trump?
1
It must be time to restock the swamp.
3
Milken...kinda resembles Megamind, that big blue head-shaped alien villain.... a spoof of Lex Luthor and Brainiac...with a costume and the showmanship purposely evocative of Alice Cooper.
Now he's off to the races, living off the schemes he used to milk and bilk thousands upon thousands our of their millions and millions....
Come to think of it....just like his buddy Trump.
2
A thief himself, he pardons his own kind.
8
November is months away. Will the voters remember this insult to justice? Will they remember that Senate Republicans could have done something to void this President but chose instead to refuse to even hear additional witnesses and then acquitted him, in effect giving him a pass.
12
It's only corrupt when the other side does it. Clinton was broke, threatening bankruptcy, during his Presidency, now he (and his wife) are worth hundreds of millions. Coincidentally, he pardoned a billionaire for tax evasion in the last days of his administration.
6
This makes perfect sense to me. We can't be keeping criminals in jail - we need that space for toddlers.
26
Trump is not planning to leave, even if not elected. It is clear to see the plain view coup that is occurring. It is clear that the country has been sold to the highest bidders, Russia, Saudi Arabia, China.
Is there intelligent people left who can put down their phones long enough to begin forming the resistance movement ?
13
He himself has probably done all of the things these folks are convicted of so in his eyes it is nothing big. t used to be that a president felt he had to resign if he got caught in a single lie. Now we hear lies all day long and the person telling those lies thinks nothing of it. Oh the depths we have sunk to.
12
If you want to anticipate who’s next, just watch Fox and Friends each day for a month.
6
When Trump promised to "drain the swamp", he was talking about federal prisons. These people are the embodiment of the swamp.
9
Thanks Tex Murphy! Vote Blue No Matter Who. Criticizing the Democrat candidates is ridiculous. NONE of them is even capable of being what Trump is or of doing what Trump does. The only thing worse than Trump is four more years of him.
12
Looks like Trump is recruiting for his new Cabinet.
13
It seems Trump is trying to goad the F.B.I.
2
This is actually a genius move by Trump. Blagojevich is now a Trumpocrat. Trump just picked up one more vote in a blue state and can say with confidence when he starts to pardon his friends that were unfairly prosecuted that it is a non-partisan issue since Rod was a Dem. I'm not anywhere near tired of winning! Notice how the media's hair is on fire about this story, that's right more free press time for Trump to counter Bloomberg. Face facts, Trump just outsmarts the media every single day. It brings joy to my life!
6
Makes me sick to my stomach. And before breakfast.
6
It’s hypocritical to criticize Trump for his corruption, while giving him the media and publicity platform to build the support to do such corruption!
6
William Barr believes that a president should have broad and unfettered powers. Now he's seeing what it looks like when a president decides to take him up on that. Somehow I don't really think Barr ever thought that someone would go as far as Trump has. If the reports about Barr threatening to quit are true, Then he must feel like an absolute fool for enabling Trump to be where he is now.
Even though the prevailing thought is that Trump & Barr are in concert together, and Barr has done nothing to counter that thought, I don't believe that he envisioned Trump claiming to be the "Chief Law Enforcement Officer for the country".
8
A lot of administration posts are empty, waiting to be filled by qualified people. Those whose sentences have been commuted or who have been pardoned surely fill the bill. Alternatively, on the off chance Trump* is not reelected, he's going to need friends who know how to return a favor.
4
None of these pardons or commutations make America or it's citizens less safe. All of them have either completed their sentence or a majority of the sentence. Half of the recipients were virtually anonymous and most have no real connection to Trump himself or his campaign. There is no reason to be upset with these specific people receiving these commutations.
America has too many people behind bars and issues sentences that are too long, lack rehabilitative focus, and aim to profit private prison industries.
My only issue with these pardons is that there were only eight issued when there should be hundreds if not thousands per year given the current state of prisons and the makeup of the convicted.
3
@PB Just because you don't remember them/know who they are and what they did doesn't mean this is ok
5
If Trump thinks he's undertaking a clever re-election strategy, here in Illinois he's succeeded in turning a state even deeper blue. The impeachment of Rod Blagojevich was one of the strongest bipartisan undertakings in Springfield history.
9
You can hate Trump for a lot of things, but best be a bit careful about this one. Relatively speaking, he's barely used this power at all.
Obama pardoned 212 people over the course of 8 years. To date, early in his fourth year, Trump has pardoned 19.
Neither are in the league of Carter (534) or Clinton (450). And it was Clinton that was known for probably the most egregious abuses ... reaching its high point with the pardon of Marc Rich.
Rich was about to be indicted for tax evasion, and fled the country (his companies ultimately settled and paid fines of close to $90MM). Clinton pardoned him on his way out of office.
During the Clinton Presidency, Denise Rich (Marc's wife) gave over $1MM to the Democratic Party, including $100,000 to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaign. And $450,000 to the Clinton Library Foundation. Nothing Trump (or any other President in recent history) has done is even remotely in that league.
8
@JRC,
Condemning Clinton not a reason to forgive Trump.
6
What amazes me is that Trump’s popularity is surging, post-acquittal as if to say “I didn’t support him before but I sure do now”. And after these pardons and commutations, he is sticking it in the eye of our judicial system which convicts Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike. This is a travesty and miscarriage of justice which all people should be condemning, piled upon a mountain of lies and assaults upon Democracy and our health (unprecedented deficits and pulling away healthcare) and well being (climate change). How his numbers can go up when he is selling our values, democracy and decency down the toilet defies imagination. Welcome to opposite world.
8
9 to 5 these were just to lay the foundations for a pardon for Flynn and Stone as soon as they are sentenced, although i expect he will draw the line at Parnas, Frumen, and Firtash. Additionally he probably has one made out and pre-dated absolving himself of all acts prior to his departure from office . . . a self pardon.
6
Maybe Flynn and Stone are next, but I’d bet Harvey Weinstein won’t be far behind.
Trump may well see Weinstein when he (Trump) looks in the mirror, so he would have reason to hope somebody would do the same for himself one day.
1
Very soon may be Trump need a clemency too, if he cannot win 2020 Presidential Election on Nov 3, 2020 for his participation in Campaign Finance Violation of 2016 Presidential Election with his former attorney Michael Cohen who is currently serving term.
4
It looks like the only thing left to be completed is a White House dinner so all of these criminals can give testimonies and expressions of adulation to The Great One.
It might be best to not include the evangelical heads on the same night for fear it might further underscore their hypocrisy.
5
Trump has showed some empathy to those who have faced injustice. Why is that a bad thing?
3
@Robert James,
I hope you're kidding.
None of those pardoned was convicted unjustly.
4
Because these guys didn’t face injustice! Empathy might be fine, but so is sticking to the facts.
3
Anyone who has been involved in legal proceedings knows that the system only works because of the normative behavior of court officers.
When people knowingly and willing obfuscate or lie the system breaks down.
And further when witnesses lie under oath the penalty needs to be severe as the system will grind to a halt having to fact check everything
However, Trump constantly exhibits non-normative behavior and his sociopathic behavior is leading this country to a dangerous place
9
Calling for federal investigations and jail for his enemies. Helping criminal friends and allies' friends get out of jail. My nervous system is in spasms over all of his abuse, like a dog on an electric collar. I just can't take it any more.
13
Trump’s pardons aren’t just sending a message to criminal friends like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn.
It’s really primarily for his base.
He knows they love to see him exercise power wantonly, as would the strongman they so desire. (No matter that it’s done to help the rich, the powerful, or the celebrity).
7
There is no time for any of us to hate- there is only time to love... even somebody like Trump who spends all his tome ranting, fuming, expressing frustration and running people down from his exalted perch. It is not a great example from any president.
1
A meaningless gesture. One criminal to another. And perhaps a guarantee that Trump will not escape indictment—SDNY—when he’s no longer King.
4
All these men will own Trump and this will come in the form of millions of dollars for his personal use and upcoming campaign. These men bought their freedom and reputations and Trump sold our legal system. Shameful.
5
What's the surprise? Where else do we think trump's going to get his next cabinet appointments?
1
He has pardoned financial cheaters to discredit the Justice System that convicted them. He is thinking of the future when he will be convicted of the same crimes.
4
No one believed this kind of depravity was possible from a US President and no one believed Americans would just stand by and watch it happening.
13
Trump is basically pardoning himself with these actions as he connects his criminal behavior to theirs.
7
“You don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows. “
5
Coincidence: all four: Trump, Blagojevich, Milken and Kerik have either been involved or had associations with organized crime. It is documented in WSJ, NYT and Wash Post. Dig deeper Haberman /Shear. There may be more to this than meets the eye.
9
@kath Also Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.
1
This is not just Trump. The Republican Party sanctioned this man's anti-American actions and knew they would ecalate. They steal children from their mothers as official policy and call refugees "illegals." Yet they free a man who sold a senate seat along with celebrities and campaign contributors. Hard to be proud of America. Thanks Mitch & Co.
15
It’s all part of the victory lap of the elementary school bully showing what getting even looks like.
6
Why are the commenters dismissing some of the other commutations (i.e., Tynice Nichole Hall, Crystal Munoz)?
Also, all presidents (yes even Clinton - has its own Wikipedia page - Bill Clinton pardon controversy, and Obama) made questionable pardons/commutations. It's all part of the political game.
2
@Jane Doe,
Citing others is not an excuse to forgive Trump.
He has shown blatant dishonesty and self-interest on a scale unheard of in any prior US president.
5
I suppose that Trump will be contemplating a declaration of clemency for himself once he loses his re-election bid this coming November...What a pathetic, corrupt administration his has been...certainly the worst in my lifetime which spans a rather significant number of decades than I care to admit. There will always be an asterisk next to Trump's name in our history books given the illegitimate means he used to advance his political career, most notable of which was his direct appeals to Russia's Putin for help in helping him to steal his (s)election. Outrageous!
6
The pardon power of the President until now has been thought to have been abused from time to time, especially when a President was leaving office. Trump has abused the power beyond the scope of any one President in history over the last three years. It stands to reason this power needs to be curbed with an amendment to the Constitution and it should state the President may offer complete pardons and commutations of sentences, but that there has to be a 2/3 Senatorial approval to any of them. That will alleviate any President from pardoning friends, cronies, potential fund raisers and passing personal judgement on the judicial system which is a separate branch of government.
9
Could it be that many of Trump's actions actually are about putting the spotlight on himself("Hey everybody, look at me"), and have little or nothing to do with what's right/makes sense or are for the general good of the nation? Isn't seeking attention/publicity been the major thread of the entire Trump life?
2
May be Trump isn't sure of a second term to do this then. Thank you for putting the phrase well connected in perspective.
3
One can only wonder if these blatant intrusions into the judiciary will tip sentiment at the SCOTUS in favour of demanding of the release of his taxes.
Then what, if he defies the SCOTUS?
3
Because of
Trump's family fortunes and the accumulation of money, he was left off the hook for a very long time in NY. He has played victim to his base which allows those who feel victimized to support him. How was he allowed to get away with so much? What is he giving Russia that we do not know about? When is the Fox News Organization going to turn open him? What is his hold on the Republican party? When will the voters see his destruction of our economy into the future? Will we lose our democracy? All because of money which is linked to power? Is there nothing more worthy than money?
2
All Trump is proving by his pardons or clemency is that Crime Does Pay.
6
None should be surprised that in ussuing the pardons, the president did not rely on the usual vetting process, which would involve the Justice Department’s pardons office. Under Trumpian scheme of things, he makes the decision first and anyone who stands in the way of its being implemented would be frog-marched out of the White House. Moreover, his relationship with the Justice Department has not been all that smooth. Rumors have it that even his most obeisant Attorney General, Bill Barr, contemplated quitting recently.
Mr. Trump says he issued pardons following “recommendations.” Among the recommenders' names he mentioned are Rudolph Giuliani, his personal lawyer, and Eddie Gallagher, an accused war criminal. Doesn't Trump know that Giuliani’s name has become a synonym for mud? And that the order he issued last month, overturning Gallagher’s war crime and demotion, made a mockery of the military code of justice? No president has done such a thing before.
Something needs to be said about the timing of these pardons. As stated in this article, presidents make such gestures toward the end their terms in office. That Mr. Trump has chosen to do it in the midst of his campaign for reelection makes one wonder whether, in pardoning these dubious characters now, he is hoping to enlist their support and the support of those who recommended the pardons, in the campaign that promises to be nastier than before.
6
Pardon my naivety; would I be pardoned if I scheme to defraud the tax system (or issue junk bonds and/or offer to sell Senate seat, for that matter) and merely be well connected or should I contribute the campaign fund???
2
We are watching the origin story for the Legion of Super-Villains.
1
When he pardons Roger Stone, his supporters will find a way to justify it. The punishment didn't fit the crime, etc. I'd love to see how much each of those people donated to Trump's current campaign. By the time he's out of office, every crony will have been rewarded.
3
The first principle of the rule of law is 'no one is above the law.' President Trump has again cavalierly disregarded the rule of law with the most recent set of blatant pardons. Professionally and personally, I am offended. What concerns me more, however, is the extraordinary damage the President continues to inflict on the democratic ideals of our country's youth.
3
Trump plans to pardon himself when he is finally found guilty of all the crimes he has committed and is still committing.
He even said as much.
3
all Americans are collectively responsible for the individual who is now sitting in the oval office. Particularly the 45+ percent who did not bother to vote in 2016. What we have lost as a nation in forfeiting our civic responsibility cannot and will not be regained. I lost will be on prominent display, in a portrait hanging from a wall in the White House.
2
What more proof do we need that trump is unfit as POTUS. The loudest message here is HE does not care what message he sends to the public. He's saying "You can't do anything about it".
2
Yes, predictable and ridiculous. Another indication of how he thinks, as if we needed more. The weaponizing of the Justice Department is a far more dangerous development, however. The solution is to vote out Trump and the others in his cult of illiberal and non-democratic personality.
To me, the most irritating component of this particular story is that Jim Brown and Jerry Rice, two African-American men who could be defending the needs of black and brown people who are under character and budgetary assault by this president, decide instead to make a public stand for the pardon of Eddie Debartolo. Yeah, Eddie was really given a bad deal. More reason to confine our admiration of sports players to the narrow and ultimately, unimportant world of the athletic venue.
3
This doesn't end here. Trump will expect these men to become his minions. He knows that they will do whatever he asks, and they'll have no qualms about doing it.
5
Trump interferes in our judicial system
Barr dithers
Republican Senators have already turned over Congress to Trump. They will not protect our courts from him.
Time for them all to go
7
Now Trump has taken over the Judicial branch of the government with a sweeping bypass of the court system that convicted and sentenced these people to prison. He has trashed the first amendment (Freedom of the press) by calling it "Fake News". What more does he need to do to convince his followers that he is moving down a path that this democracy will have difficulty surviving?
2
When looking for synonyms for what Trump, Barr, some other cabinet secretaries (tho we have to hope not DOD), Fox News, and the socalled Trump base resemble: try “national socialists.” Definitely a threat to American democracy!
1
He has made a mockery of our judicial system! I would really love to know what he is holding over the Republicans, besides their jobs!!
2
@Grandma Russian money. I suspect they've all -- in many cases unknowingly -- received campaign funds tainted with Russian money.
5
@Grandma
And, Chinese money. Even this NYT did a great article on Mitch McConnell getting money from his Chinese in-laws.
My goodness, we desperately need a constitutional amendment to get rid of citizens United and other corruption-allowing political money and gifts laws. Money does NOT equal speech. That is antithetical to democracy.
We should have publicly funded elections and strict “no gifts, no later lobbying jobs” laws.
3
As Trump continues to thumb his nose at the justice department, the GOPers in congress sit on their hands, shake their heads, and wonder how they can benefit from all these people being pardoned.
I've lived under presidents from FDR's first term to today, and never, not even during Nixon's worst days, did I believe that my country was in danger of becoming destroyed.
At 87, soon to leave, I fear for the fate of all my large number of family members in the future I will not share because it will not be pretty if this corrupt administration and corrupt GOPer congress continues on its path.
3
Trump has never drained the swamp. He filled it with cabinet members and political appointees, many of whom have been convicted of crimes.
Now he is refilling the swamp
Why, to normalize corruption and fraud to make his crimes seem acceptable
1
“Television made me what I am” reads a lyric from the old Talking Heads song “Television Man”.
Everything Trump does makes me realize he’s the guy David Byrne was singing about.
@Ned Ludd Have you been to Ned Ludd restaurant in Portland, OR? It's great. Yes, they know the significance of the name.
Birds of a feather. Do you think anyone will pardon Trump after his post-term convictions? I hope not.
Trump says that, like himself, Blagojevich was a "victim" of the same forces that investigated him. Blagojevich is a criminal, caught in the act of abusing the power of his office for personal gain, and rightly convicted. Trump just made clear that he is also a criminal, not a victim, when he claims that law enforcement treated him the same, as a potential perpetrator of crimes. Tomorrow Trump will be claiming that he is draining the swamp. And yet nearly half of Americans approve of his performance. In what delusional fantasy world do they live?
3
Oh sen. collins (lower case intentional) way to bring trump to accountability.
5
Trump claimed to be fighting corruption in Ukraine when the scandal broke about him asking Zelensky to investigate the Bidens and their behavior in 2016. Now, here in the US, Trump is commuting the sentences or pardoning men who were convicted of corruption. There were several others that he pardoned also. Black women convicted of much lesser crimes. I am sure he is trying to win over the black vote by doing this.
2
Most Presidents do their controversial pardons at the end of their terms, when they’re almost out the door and cannot be held to account by voters. Kinda cowardly.
Trump is being courageous by taking a political risk during an election year.
2
Yeah, real courageous. He just got disgustingly and unfairly acquitted on two impeachment charges. I don’t know the charges, but they seemed nice and appropriate. He knows where his toast is buttered in the Senate and he’s basically Godzilla Unleashed.
There is no way he’s going to get punished other than losing the election. He already knows there’s a high probability of that and is finishing up the “cleaning of the swamp” before he’s frog-walked out the door.
And if he does win the election, expect more of these shenanigans and the end of democracy as the founders envisioned it.
5
@JQGALT
Not the case in my view. There in no nobility in it. It is for himself. I think with sincere respect that you are being naive.
3
@JQGALT,
Trump is a creature of impulse. He is all ego, like a naive toddler. He has no understanding of or respect for consequences.
There is nothing courageous or even decent about such a person.
5
Total Presidential pardons/sentence commutations:
Carter: 566
Reagan: 406
H.W Bush: 77
Clinton: 459
George W: 200
Obama: 1,927
Trump: 26
3
The Obama to Trump ratio puts this in perspective.
2
Complete your comparison with what and whom these pardons were for. Numbers, in a vacuum, mean nothing.
7
@JQGALT,
Most of Obama's numbers were commutations, not pardons. He issued only 212 pardons.
And the majority of the beneficiaries of his power were non-violent drug offenders, who should never have been jailed in the first place.
6
Pardoning criminals? For the majority of Americans, Trump is increasingly being seen as an inept joker. If we all parrot Mr. Trump we lose moral ground and wallow in the same putrid swamp of cheats he attracts. Just remember, Trump was a failed and rejected former self-styled Democrat before he commandeered the Republicans and conned unsuspecting masses with his populist fake messages. He is effectively destroying the Republican Party. Conservatism and anything that is decent in conservative politics is being washed away. Real conservatives are being very slow to wake up and realize they have been co-opted by a rogue wolf hiding behind a façade. This guy belongs to a class of people inhabited by mobsters, oligarchs, manipulators and predators. He is the classic ugliest of the archetypal Ugly American.
We have never had a leader who has a distorted mind and operates exclusively as an ego driven pathological serial liar. Those who enable this reduced excuse of a human being should be very careful; history indicates that enablers of ignominious characters have not fared well in the aftermath of his inescapable defeat. It’s going to be real ugly as he is increasingly cornered along with his diminished group of blind cohorts. If he wants to save himself, he should find an excuse and resign. That’s not likely to happen. That type of personality usually wants to go over the cliff and take as many people as he can with him.
4
“And forgive me my trespasses as I forgive those who have trespassed against others.”
A professional journalist will call people by correct names and titles. As the president of the USA, his name is "President Trump", not Mr. Trump. This is obviously slanted with disrespect. Darol
A professional journalist will follow the Style Manual established for his/her employer.
With all due respect, referring to trump as “Trump” might be seen as disrespectful in some quarters, but “Mr. Trump” should not be.
2
@Darol Dickinson,
The Times's style is to use "President Trump" for the first mention of him in story, and to call him "Mr. Trump" after that.
Nor is it "disrespectful" to call people by their first names, a practice for which I admire the Quakers. Senator Sanders is referred to with great respect as "Bernie."
We are all just human beings — except for some people, like the present occupant of the White House, who deserves far worse names.
4
Does everything that Trump touches become an epic mess?
5
When they ultimately send this clown to jail, do you think anyone will rush to pardon him? I sure hope not.
2
So, Trump grants clemency to a crooked politician and a Wall Street swindler. Why are we not surprised? After all, these are his peeps!
3
Poor Jeffrey Epstein. He should not have committed suicide. He should been a little more patient. After all Trump and Epstein were actually pals as per Trump himself.
5
One name: Mark Rich. He was pardoned by Clinton. Rich was a financier and evaded prosecution by leaving the US. He was in the same category as Milken. Was there outrage over that by everyone or the NYT? If your weren't upset over that, then you need to cool your jets over this. #dontbeahypocrite
1
I was as outraged about that as I am about this. Firing up my jets again.
4
@Riddle,
Citing another person's deeds does not excuse Trump.
1
@Jerry Engelbach He is citing the hypocrisy of the left.
please hide the nuclear red button, or replace it with a toylike, lego something... because he doesn't care too much about anything... he's the center of his own parallel universe... so high...
Trump is a mob boss. It’s more clear than ever.
5
Trump will restore the family nest eggs Milken destroyed, won't he?
1
Milken probably already did in order to get the pardon. We’ll never know.
He forgot Bernie Madoff.
1
Did any money exchange hands? Would Bill Barr care?
2
Clinton's Marc Rich pardon alone was a lot more offensive than all of these put together. Just check the "Bill Clinton pardon controversy" page on wikipedia.
5
@CacaMera
Yes, an excellent resource for political research. I hope you read more than Wikipedia & the NYTimes.
Trump is looking for Political favors.
2
@CacaMera And your point is? Does that make this any LESS offensive??
5
@CacaMera,
So impeach Clinton. /s
Clinton's deeds don't excuse Trump.
2
The criminals who Trump pardoned are his heroes. He assumes that by pardoning them now, it will provide cover and, wait for it, logic for his planned pardoning of Stone, Manafort and Flynn, plus it goes without saying, and it's so obvious, that he thinks the American people are too stupid to figure out what he's doing anyway. He's wrong in that everyone does not have the mindset of his base and will see through this juvenile charade Trump and Barr cooked up.
9
To drain Washington's swamp, Mr. Trump should name the following citizens to government posts:
• White house press secretary: Angela Stanton (Experience: motivational speaker who served six months of home confinement in 2007 for her role in a stolen-vehicle ring)
• Head of the General Services Administration: David Safavian (Experience: was sentenced to a year in prison in 2009 for covering up his ties to the lobbyist Jack Abramoff)
• Head manager of the wall: Paul Pogue (Experience: chief executive of a large construction company, sentenced to three years of probation and was ordered to pay $723,0000 in fines and restitution for filing false income tax statements)
• Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services: Judith Negron (Experience: 35 years in prison in 2011 for her role in orchestrating a $205 million Medicare fraud scheme)
• Secretary of the Treasury: Michael R. Milken (experience: pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges 10 years in prison)
• Secretary to the Department of Homeland Security: Bernard B. Kerik (experience: former New York City police commissioner, four years in prison after pleading guilty to eight felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials)
• Secretary to the Department of the Interior: Rod R. Blagojevich (experience: 14 years in prison in 2011 for trying to sell or trade to the highest bidder the Senate seat that Barack Obama vacated)
12
@Roberto
There is nothing like a list of facts to see the truth clearly. Well done.
1
@Roberto Stanton's criminal record true? She rarely appears and when so, is ridiculous. Good choices and interesting resumes for all.
I notice that none of these pardons are to people whose case was debatable, or the process of arrest and trial at all questionable.
It seems more like Trump pardoning those who do what he and his cronies consider typical daily behavior. This is to soften the future president who he'll be seeking a pardon from.
7
All the pardons are part of softening the public when 45's turn comes up for investigation/trial/conviction(s). Somehow, it all won't seem quite so criminal, will it?
5
Sentences for all criminal offenses in US, federal and state, are much too long, and much more severe than Europe, for example.
When there is evidence of'profound'injustice in a sentence to a defendant that 'pardons and the like ' should be granted absent such facts these practices should not be at the whim of politicians.
We need a complete reform of our Justice system in America no elected official should have the power to grant pardons, commutations , we have appeals in our court systems for these endeavors
BLM
4
Of course Trump pardons these law-breakers, for he continually acts outside the law himself and so identifies with other criminals. As long as he remains in office, he'll continue to defy our legal system as well as our Constitution.
4
I am retired and I think it’s time for me to consider a life of crime.
As anybody have any suggestions?
Anything big will do, since I will be pardoned in the end.
I can do the crime since I don’t have to do the time!
7
Make sure to do it in New York. That way you can't be held while you await trial,thanks to bail reform.
2
Public corruption is the best path if you want a pardon.
3
@Vince Brunetto
How fast do you think the common person would be thrown into a for profit prison if they:
Refused to pay their taxes ?
Committed sexual assault ?
Committed Treason on a daily basis ?
Would their sentences get commuted when Trumps friends are making money on their incarceration ?
2
We should stop over-analyzing Trump. Simply put, he wants to be in control of everything and everyone. He desires to use all resources to punish his enemies and reward his friends, categories that change quickly on his whim. It’s how a disturbed child would act if given total control.
7
As odious as it is, all of Trump's beneficiaries were convicted in our criminal justice system.
Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a billionaire who was charged with aiding terrorists.
Rich was a fugitive from justice who fled and was then rewarded for it by Clinton.
Clinton makes Trump look sterling where pardons are the issue.
Yes Marc Rich was buying oil from Iran at the time Reagan was trading arms with Iran. Reagan’s henchmen were granted pardons by the first President Bush as recommended by None other than Bill Barr.
4
@Eric Lamar
So if you were outraged by Clinton, are you also outraged by Trump? Are you saying that they were both contemptible for the pardons?
As a Democrat, I am happy to say that Clinton was absolutely wrong to pardon Rich and the pardon made me not want to vote for him again. Are you willing to say the same of Trump?
6
@Jacob Clinton pardoned a fugitive from justice, unacceptable and horrendous by any measure.
Cheers.
1
Do the Governed really consent to such arbitrariness?
The damage being done to us is not that a few criminals go free, but that the Governed will find the hypocrisy of a government that can't even comply with it's own laws to be reason to become ungovernable. A people must consent to be governed. How can they if they have doubts about justice within the government? How will the loss of cooperation between the Governed and the government render us dysfunctional as a country? My guess is that this Pandora's Box will not be so easily closed and generations of ungovernable Americans will make government dysfunctional.
7
Relatively speaking, Obama prosecuted absolutely no one for stealing billions of dollars from the American people, plunging the country into one of the greatest financial dsasters of the modern era. On the other hand, Trump cut some punishment already meted out and served for crimes that were trifling by comparison.
The take-over of the American democratic system by the oligarchs is pretty much complete. And the blame lies directly with the Republican party. They did nothing to hold the president accountable for his lawlessness and so here we are.
6
Trump has said he can pardon himself.
This happens in third world countries and dictatorships. What has the US become?
7
If Trump loses the 2020 election, he will first rant and rage about it being “rigged”, “unfair”, and “disgusting”. He will then resign under a plan for Mike Pence, newly sworn in as president until Jan 20, to pardon him for all possible federal crimes.
Hopefully, several states have criminal indictments ready to roll out against Trump for all his misdeeds they can charge under state law.
1
Someone mentioned Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall in this section, it is worse than that we have now crossed over the lexicon where white collar criminality does not exist and the plutarchs are now free to do what they want when they want.
De-construction of the administrative state? No Steve Bannon this is a green light to all sorts of criminality which was prosecuted under prior Presidents...also Republican Senators who voted against impeachment see what you have wrought?
Banana Republic? More like 1984.
5
@MGK
This is not what de-regulation looks like!
This is what a lawless society begins to look like!
2
I can understand Trump wanting to pardon these criminals. What I don't understand is how he can keep selling his "clean up the Swamp" mantra to his loyal followers and they keep buying it. Pardoning Milken (who cost me $$ in my 401k back when) seems to be a favor to Rupert Murdoch, who supported pardoning Milken also. Murdoch controls Fox News. Oh, I see how this works. When you get all your news from only one source, it's easy to sell your product, even if it's deception.
4
The crimes Trump saw to forgive - selling a Senate seat, insider trading, tax fraud - are the kinds of self-dealing corruption that history will remember this sorry administration for.
7
In particular, the commutation of Blagojevich who now has shed his Democratic connection in favor of has now Trumpocratic affiliation willl energize some Chicago voters who are uncertain as to whom to support. The pardons playsto the base.- a thumb in to the eye to the "elites."
Those pardoned ARE the “elites”. Trump is of the “elites”.
1
@inkspot It depends on whose ox is being gored
I bet you these weren't 'get out of jail free' cards. Wonder how much trump got for them.
3
We’ll never know. Money donated to SuperPacs (including Trump’s) are “dark money” which doesn’t need to be disclosed. Then there’s Panama, Switzerland, the Antilles, Malta, and as a last, but favorite resort, Deustchebank. They’re all very good at secrecy.
The description "White collar criminals" is uncalled for. Presidents pardon those convicted of wrong doing knowingly or otherwise. Pity civility is lost these days.
3
All Presidents prior to Trump have pardoned 28,356 people. Two presidents pardoned no one as they died in office prior to having the opportunity.
Trump has pardoned 19 people.
I'm no Trump fan but the commenters need to do a little reading before they respond with such fury.
But who were these people and what were their crimes? Numbers don’t mean a thing if they don’t have that swing.
3
@inkspot
Love the "swing".
But check it out online...many around the Civil War but there are some doozies for sure....politics then and politics now.....
Peace.
Doesn't take a 'shrink' to see through this: Trump is pardoning his own behavior.
3
Trump remains an unindicted criminal so he has an affinity for criminals. He came in promising to drain the swamp. Anyone who supports Trump needs to spend time on the psychotherapist's couch. None of these people deserve to have their records expunged. I think in the case of Rod, former governor of Illinois, he got lucky because his name was associated with being prosecuted when James Comey was at the FBI and Obama's seat was empty. Had there been zero mention of Obama chances are he would still be in prison. Bernard Kerik deserved what he got. He was on TV a few days ago talking about bringing back the old tactics to deal with crime yet he committed several felonies.
1
Former Illinois Governor Blagojevich — or Blago as he is called — has never acknowledged that he did anything wrong. After arriving at his home early this morning, he once again professed this belief.
It’s often been said that just about everyone in prison believes they are innocent. Blago certainly falls into this category.
Yes, it’s sad that he was forced to live in prison while his children grew up, but it also a problem of his own making
1
I envision trump's REAL preferred administration. Filled with criminals like these, and with a personal military headed by the odious Gallagher.
A 'hand picked' team is great if the motive is patriotic. trump's is not. But boy, is he a happy dictator at the moment!
2
The Times reporting would be better balanced by contrasting these pardons with those of Obama, Bush and Clinton. I'm left wondering what sort of criteria was applied by Trump and how that differs from his predecessors.
1
What's next the Medal of Freedom?
4
Who says Trump doesn't have empathy?
1
President Trump does lots of tweeting about high-profile prosecutions but little actual intervention. So far, Trump has issued 25 pardons and commuted nine sentences. By comparison, President Obama granted 142 pardons and commuted 1,715 sentences, an average of 71 pardons and 857 commutations per term; this works out to 71 pardons and 857 commutations per term.
President Obama issued pardons for multiple cases of making false statements to federal investigators, bank fraud, many laundering, and tax evasion. If he wanted, Trump could follow Obama’s example by pardoning George Papadoupolos, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Michale Cohen and Roger Stone for similar offenses.
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clemency-statistics
https://www.justice.gov/pardon/obama-pardons
1
@William Case
No. Just no. You are incorrect.
3
@William Case,
You might note that a great many of Obama's pardons and clemencies were for non-violent drug offenders.
2
@Jerry Engelbach
Yes, But a great many were for making false statements to federal investigators, bank fraud, many laundering, tax evasion, theft, robbery, etc.
He is best what he stands for and wrote about it,how to make money,by any means-good,board ya ugliest ways. Remember his book the Art of making money! By pardoning 11 without any doubts proven guilty of their financial crimes so prematurely even before his first term end is dubious and fishy why he is doing such thing now and what for? Is he cashing in now for his big pocket interests because he is worried about winning in 2020?
1
Excellent choices by our President!!
1
There is a poison pill in the Constitution. It's the presidential power to pardon.
Most of the presidential powers are counterbalanced by checks on those powers by the Supreme Courts and Congress. (Impeachment didn't work with this president because the founding fathers didn't envision our era of hyper-partisanship.) But the power of the pardon just sat there, unused to it's full extent, waiting for a president like Trump - totally reckless, totally shameless - to come along, and actually undo democracy.
Consider: If the president wants to rig the next election in his favor, he can simply inform his minions to do whatever it takes and don't worry about the law, I've got your back.
It took a perfect storm of two constitutional poison pills - the Electoral College and the presidential pardon power - to bring us to the brink of dictatorship.
3
trump is keeping his word in regards to a criminal justice overhaul for minorities with excessive sentences .. He views wealthy white men as a minority.
2
@paul,
Very amusing. They are indeed a minority.
No worries this is just Trump picking out his new cabinet. All convicted of fraud in one way or another , they meet the qualifications. And, don't worry about Barr, Rudy is waiting in the wings
3
I am a Democrat and this just disgusts me. trump just seems to love corrupt people.
2
Blagojevich will be the perfect replacement for Barr when and if he resigns, beholden to Trump, a crook after his own heart and seeking a new job.
2
The president has committed these crimes himself and Republicans are afraid of him.
2
These actions remind me of a terrible movie I was once subjected to on a tour bus "Snakes on a plane." They just kept coming! In spite of the farcical premise of the context and the movie, it haunted me in nightmares and just returned to my mind after reading about further outrages of this man who promised to drain the swamp. He is the biggest swamp rat of them all!
1
You know he wants to pardon Stone immediately. Remember back in the day, you were embarrassed to buy condoms so you threw a ton of other stuff into the basket so the condoms wouldn't be noticed?
1
Does anyone check to see if Trump just flat-out received a payoff for these pardons?
Is there any agency -- accounting office, FBI department, IRS -- empowered to find out if a president simply takes a huge cash bribe for a pardon?
Any way at all to find out?
If so, who or how?
If not, isn't it maybe... sort of... kinda...you know..., time to close such a colossal, immense, titanic loophole in our 'justice' system?
3
Trump's crime spree continues. This spiteful, vindictive little man simply cannot accept any form of criticism, whether from Barr or 2,000-plus former DOJ officials or a former deputy AG or the federal judges association. He has to poke a stick in their eyes while being ever so obvious about laying the groundwork for Stone and Flynn pardons.
3
So based upon this precedent, a die hard democrat could shoot Trump on 5th Ave. in order to enable Bernie or Bloomberg to win the presidency and then petition the newly inaugurated POTUS to pardon???
This is insanity.
2
He must have looked into the mirror when he made his decision. There for the grace of Barr go I.
A crooked politician
A fraudulent financier
A self-serving law man
You could not ask for a more perfect description of the man.
1
@Frank Casa
May I add, “There for the grace of McConnell go I”.
1
I guess this is what draining the swamp looks like.
1
not quite sure that this is "draining the swamp....."
1
Criminal helping out other criminals. Nothing new here.
1
Why is this a big deal? Doesn't every president issue pardons? As I recall, Clinton waited until his last day in office to issue his, at least Trump will give the NYT readers another 5 years to complain about it:)
1
What Trump delivers is not "clemency". He is upending justice, freeing unrepentant criminals. None of these are good people. Not even close. They are liars and cheats and criminals like him. Why call it clemency?
4
Can only imagine how young minds are recognizing that is must be 'cool to circumvent laws'. 45 & his minions are in 'Incubator for more criminality', for which we will all pay dearly...VOTE!
2
Trump pardons in his own image.
1
Maybe Trump needs a fresh pool of advisors.
1
I guess Trump is just restocking the swamp.
2
Five.
He already pardoned Rush Limbaugh.
2
One man's poison is another man's meat!
1
Why is it wrong to call an alien who enters the US illegally an illegal alien but perfectly OK to call a person convicted of a crime a convict? The
NYT apparently thinks a person who serves their time and is released from prison can be labeled a “convict” for the rest of their life. Hence, the use of the term “convict” in your headline on this story.
1
@Never Trumper,
I don't see the word "convict" in the headline.
Upon initial observation and inspection,intelligent Americans may be intimidated by trump's hubris,havoc and contempt.However,upon secondary perusal,we find that America has faced this circumstantial 'crises,before,multiple times.Confederate Robert E.Lee's Army of Northern Virginia seemed perfectly poised to wipe Union Armies from the field,'initially.JFK seemed completely confounded by the Cuban Missile crises,initially.Barack Obama appeared confronting a dubious chance and choice for reelection,as America's first African American male president,initially.The obvious point here is that 'first impressions, are not infallible.In all of these instances,America's confidence in herself prevailed,as it will with this imposter president.The American people are Not fools and idiots,as some right wing insurrectionists insist.We are the American People.Don't take US,lightly….
4
@JEFFERY JONES
I agree. The most egregious outcome of trump’s lawlessness aided by Barr and McConnell and McConnell’s cohorts is a civil war they will have instigated.
2
The pardons will make great Bloomberg ads.
4
It feels like Gotham, where the biggest criminals are released from prison and pardoned by a corrupt mayor. And yet the fiction here is surpassed by this great White House Joker, Donald Trump ...
3
Trump isn’t draining the swamp, he’s pardoning the swamp. The corruption of this administration knows no bounds.
2
It is getting to the point where I feel like the term, "Swamp", is a little hard on real swamps where mostly harmless animals, although slimy, make a nice home for themselves. Only Trump could pervert and exhaust that metaphor. His administration is a deep multilayered cesspool that only dangerous freaks can survive in. There is no oxygen for honesty or anything that can be called, "good".
1
Drain the swamp?
Drain the jails, fill the swamp...
1
Tired of winning yet?
2
@Paul
As just a regular American out here in regular America, I have not gained nor witnessed and winning from the corrupt trump. Only complete and utter disgust, dismay and great anger at what trump is doing.
3
Americans believe that there is no ,”class system” in the US! Cute!
2
@Purota Master
Oh no. You are incorrect. We know we are living in a plutocracy, kleptocracy, oligarchy. Don’t be too surprised when our second civil war breaks out. The seams are straining big time.
1
Like calls to like.
1
This is minor corruption when compared with the idea that Trump and his team have seriously brought into the public discourse during the Mueller investigation, namely that Trump, if needed, can pardon himself.
A concept that is staggeringly idiotic, and yet was bandied about as a reasonable option by today’s GOP.
If that does not convince you of the ongoing farce of their banana republic mentality in the Trump era, then nothing will,
3
I think Trump knows he's toast.
1
I hope that the real perpatrators of current occupant's schemes can be identified. He is in league with some of the most powerful people from the highest reaches of our so-called government and leaders of the White NationALIST movement. They have gathered together to plan the next 50 years of our country. They have got to include financiers, money-grabbers, Wall Street, evangelical leaders, industrial leaders, and tech hotshots and others who have been planning and waiting for this moment. They have their boy now and he has just started. BUT, something always intervenes...……......….
1
@Betsy Herring
It will be us, the regular joes and jills in the regular America who will wrest control of the reins. The seams are straining mightily.
1
These guys are good for campaign contributions, fancy fund raising dinners (except for Kerik). I figure if The Donald really wants to monetize pardons he should go all the way, go for the big bucks....El Chapo.
1
Heck of a job Mitchie!
3
Rudolph Giuliani (when he had some integrity) got Michael Millken thrown in jail. Talk about irony!
3
For those who think he's "testing the waters" on pardons or poking his finger in the eye of the previous administration - I think you're giving him too much credit. This is motivated by nothing other than his ego. It's a dare to try to contain him, a dare to try to rein him in. My only hope is that everyone who sat out the 2016 election will get their hides out of the house and vote this time. If I hear one more person say they aren't registered to vote or don't like the Dem candidates, I swear I won't be responsible for what comes out of my mouth.
2
The US president, flexing his dictatorial powers empowered by his minions in the Senate
1
Trump is calling bringing some common sense to injustice.
Murder, rape, molesting children -> horrific crimes / 6-15 years; Merely talking about wanting to sell an electoral seat -> 14 years?? really???
McCabe lying to Congress / Zero time
Roger Stone lying to Investigators / 9 years
really???
If you don't want to see the disproportion then you're guilty of ignorance and putting your head in the sand.
If you cannot see the logic and compassion Trump is demonstrating, then there's no point to discussing.
Trump is not evil.
The MSM not informing or misleading its audiences is the true evil.
In the piece on who is Bernard Kerik here in the NYT many details have been left out of his bio. One for a man who claims today he was never happier except on the day his children were born what a crock. Nowhere in the current story did it mention that for two years he was sleeping in a apt that had been provided in Lower Manhattan to rescue workers 9/11 to take breaks. He and Judith Regan were lovers in an apt. paid for by the City of New York taxpayers. Ms. Regan if anyone remembers was the publisher/editor of the famous OJ Simpson book If I Had Done It. I guess he is still looking. She left and went to sell movie projects in LA. Last heard she was involved with Epstein's girlfriend Ghislaise Maxwell - she of the famous Maxwell who stole all the funds from the employee funds of the the Daily News and other newspapers he owned. She is rumored to have met up with Regan and both working to sell movie scripts. She was last seen a few weeks ago leaving and In and Out Burger in LA. I wonder when she is going to be arrested. Also the article did mention that Keriks best man at his wedding is now under arrest for human trafficking at Saint Lawrence College. What a cast of characters and Trump the leader of the family. That movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood made a big deal out of the Manson family. I dare say we live in the most evil times in history and our institutions are being destroyed one by one. Stone will be pardoned and prediction Barr will do nothing. Jim Trautman
4
Ya think if I can get Kim Kardashian to tell the traffic court I'm a nice guy, they will drop my speeding ticket?
2
nightmare on trump street continued
3
Almost three thousand comments and, unlike the sainted Barack Obama, Trump didn’t even let a murderous Puerto Rican terrorist go free. He needs to up his game!
The Swamp gets bigger and deeper every day. How much stench can Americans stand?!
Madoff next?
Its funmy that Stone is getting sentenced tomorrow and immediately before Trump pardons a boatload of crooks. Cute or too cute?
Neither Chelsea Manning nor Marc Rich were not pardoned by Trump!!!!
Trump cares nothing for public perception. He is a narcissist and an egomaniac with no shame, no governor on his thumbs or his motivations. What is worse, he is pitifully weak. Something comes up on Fox and he immediately acts on its suggestion. Never have media denizens had such power over a leader. These pardons were all "ordered up" by Fox news appearances. Doesn't this bother anyone? Certainly it doesn't bother the zombie MAGA-heads who will excuse any ridiculous Trump action to continue their membership in his despicable cult.
2
his new cabinet ?
Harvey Weinstein has nothing to worry about with Chief Justice Trump ruling the land.
White collar criminals are getting the message.
Corrupt away!!!
The president has your back.
Go forth and do your criminality.
The Justice Department will cover for you.
The president will pardon you.
He'll even pay your legal fees if you take the good guys out back and beat the heck out of them.
It's a free for all.
Steal, plunder, pollute.
1
---trump is a consistently despicable human...-like being.
1
I don't know if this is a silver lining or a "be careful what you ask for", but . . .
https://www.yahoo.com/gma/barr-mulls-resigning-over-trumps-tweets-sources-025444481.html
That headline is despicable. Obama pardoned many, uh, blue collar criminals who engaged in crimes of violence. But nothing to see there.
Wall Street understood Ivan Boesky and Mike Milken. Giuliani allowed them to go to jail silently. The lawyers that served them were ignored. Rudy knew not to take on the lawyers.
Until today, I had the only pardon given to a Wall Street person. Bill Clinton swore he’d not pardon me. I suggested he clean up his act. To his face. Witnessed.
On his last day he acted. Misspelled my middle name. I now have two pardons. Bonner and Bonnor.
Marc Rich was pardoned. He bought his. As did Mike Milken.
There’s nothing like Bill Clinton when his conscience works. AG Nicholas de B. Katzenbach petitioned for me: www.sblewis.net
I’d be ashamed to have a Trump pardon.
1
Trump never disappoints.
Last year, I went to 5 countries in Europe and on my pub crawls, I always introduce myself as someone from a third world country ruled by a corrupt dictator who wants to have sex with his daughter.
Got me many a pint with that line.
So, thanks Donald! The whole world is laughing at you. This while I get free beer.
2
So, Susan Collins...has he “learned his lesson”?
1
It is no surprise. Trump brings his insane brain's hammer to break laws and cross redlines. These are his 'soul mates'.
Trump has a brilliant mind & an insane brain. A president hires minds but the brain has to be the president's own...
Trump has two personalities. His mind projects a brilliant personality & his brain projects an insane personality. Both con-sider him as the greatest leader ever.
In the interest of America and the world all leaders Republican and Democrat must come together to ensure that an insane brain must never again be allowed to become president.
The good news is if only we can learn from Trump's dual personality and wake up to the fact that Trump is just the symptom in chief of what is wrong with a huge chunk of America.
American mind education is cutting edge and so we make big strides in improving infrastructure, inventions, incomes, civilization etc. Our Brain education is neglected and the brain is even miseducated. Our brain education is messed up and so we have all these social ills as bad as ever.
Our leaders and experts need to wake up to the fact the brain and mind are two separate entities and as long as the brain and mind are lumped together as just the mind we will never solve our social mess.
https://www.einpresswire.com/article/467766776/emotional-intelligece-departments-at-universities-need-to-be-renamed-and-redesigned-as-emotional-health-departments
NY Times Editorial Team please take advantage of Trump's brain's insanity.
Trump can identify with those he pardoned as he well knows that if he got nabbed for the financial cheating he had done (the tricks he used to get out of paying the taxes on his father's estate) he would be in jail. Then there's "you scratch my back, I will scratch your's." The friends of those he pardoned have deep pockets and Trump needs to keep that money flowing in for the election. I wonder if he'll send a pardon to the "Central Park Five."
What a great time to be a rich white guy in America. A bonus if youve been convicted of something and are in jail. Indeed we are in the land of opportunity.
1
Trump should pardon Bernie Madoff to complete his rogues’ gallery!
I have no problem with it. Michael Milken for example has done more for Humanity since he was released from Prison in 1993 than all of us together could do in a Lifetime. His life and donations to good causes should be applauded and not used for Political gain.
He's been called by Forbes "The Man who changed Medicine" after he survived Cancer and channeled $700M into Prostate Cancer Research.
I can think of a lot of people I'd like to see in Jail so lets not demean those who served their time and have come out and turned over a new leaf.
2
Well, there's 3200+ comments so this will probably get lost in the shuffle, but in my head I went right to Bob Dylan:
"Steal a little and they throw you in jail,
Steal a lot and they make you a king."
16
@Jack Klompus
"One lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns."
Don Vito Corleone
2
I think trump is creating room for him, his family and cabinet in prisons. There is a lot of them that needs to get in and there isn’t enough room. Go trump!
6
What's wrong is right, and what's right is now wrong. Welcome to Trump's New World Order!
8
He's desperate for friends, for approval, and to be liked - whether they are criminals or not. Its that simple. Further disgracing the Office of President.
6
It is too late for Barr to resign to save his reputation. Barr is permanently stained orange. The only thing Barr's resignation would do is create an acting AG. Then we would see the spineless R's in the Senate appoint another Trump lackey.
Our only hope is that people who truly care about the USA are getting fed with the destruction Trump is visiting on the rule of law and The Constitution and that they vote him out. Unfortunately, I am not optimistic that will happen. The Trumpettes are too caught up in "taking our country back" to care. You can't have institutionalized bigotry and discrimination return when there is the rule of law.
5
If these individuals pardoned by Trump are not the poster children for greed and corruption, I don't know who is.
11
Scary. Prison awaits us all and the FBI and Justice set people up, but only a few people are released? How about emptying the prisons if the FBI can't be trusted?
3
This is Trump's quid pro quo, without so stating. Nothing is ever intended to be free!
5
Blagojevich belongs behind bars; there is no reason for leniency. Some of the others, maybe so. But not Blagojevich.
5
Can you tell us the names of the lawyers representing these individuals?
3
Our impeached imposter president is an active threat, every day, to every value, every function and every institution of democratic government and the rule of law. The perverse absolution that he has claimed from the Senate's impeachment vote is now fueling an irrational, wanton and utterly destructive spree of malicious interventionism. Unprecedented in our history, odious in our eyes. I'm beginning to think that it is possible that we cannot "...keep this republic." (Franklin)
12
Maybe the only time I agree with Trump. Blago’s sentence was harsh and Mike Madigan’s corrupt Chicago machine chugs on. Of course, Trump really commuted the sentence because of the Obama connection but that’s his M.O. his whole presidency.
You can pay $5 million to $100 million and get out of jail. Since Rudy is involved it’s almost a sure bet that you can buy a pardon, especially if you are a billionaire...
4
Well Susan, Lamar, remember how you (and others) voted to acquit this man on the charge of abuse of power, telling us he had learned his lesson? Now tell us, exactly which lesson did you have in mind?
11
With these pardons, Trump is telling Michael Flynn, Paul Manaford and Roger Stone that they can be patient with the knowledge that he will get to them soon.
4
I used to have my paycheck signed by Eddie Debartolo's father. I worked at Louisiana Downs racetrack in the 1980's. It was their heyday: They had the largest on track attendance in the country outside of NY and L.A. 16,000 to 18,000 people on a Saturday or Sunday. This was prior to ubiquitous casino's. I visited NYC and that was it: I had to live there. I moved there 5 months later. I only knew 1 person; a close friend who was also a former member in our jazz/rock band. He lived in Alphabet City at the foot of Tomkins Square Park. This was the year of the huge riot in the park. Anyway, there is no way Mike Milken or DeBartolo or especially Bernie Kerik should get off so easy. No way. Of all people Milken. He lost billions for millions of people in Junk Bonds. Later fans.
4
These people were convicted by a jury, the president has singlehandedly overturned those convictions.
What does that say about the president's belief in the ability of U.S. citizens to govern ourselves?
10
I sincerely believe Mr. Trump finds perverted enjoyment in holding the lives of others in his grasp. It’s his version of the emperors of ancient Rome deciding whether a gladiator lives or dies in the arena. This behavior has been evident since his days as host of “The Apprentice”, choosing which contestant was “fired” or which was not. This has also been reflected in his inhumane treatment of immigrants, toying with the lives of thousands. But unlike his days as a reality TV host, he now has the power of the presidency behind him. Goodness only knows what he’s capable of.
15
He thinks he is the Emporor of Rome. "Crassus, that's what he wants" as was spoken in Kubrick's loan-out directing of Spartacus (1960). A 30 (or 31) year old guy directing Kirk Douglas, Lawrence Olivier, Charles Laughton, Petr Ustinov, Jean Simmons and Tony Curtis. All the while fighting with the star/producer (Kirk Douglas). Kurick was completely fearless. Kubrick and Steve McQueen (the actor!) remind me of each other in that neither wiuld give a single inch. Of c ourse, Kubrick came from a fairly well to do family. McQueen came from the gutter. How can one not love him? I did and still do; both of them. Trump is the opposite of these 2 men. He needs to be removed from office by any means necessary.
1
Didn't Obama commute over 1900 sentences during his 2 terms; 300 coming in his last day in office. I am not a trump fan but what is the difference between trumps actions and Obama's?
Can someone enlighten me with the difference?
2
Obama commuted 1715; most all were drug offenders serving mandatory sentences, up to life, for drug offenses. Mandatory sentencing is now much changed. (Wikipedia)
I see a difference between then and now: The crime, the wealth, the notoriety and the complexion of the lucky commuted or pardoned felon are all very different.
3
I agree, but not with who the top 3 white collar crime guys (Milken, DeBartolo, and Kerik) should have spent way longer in prison (if they did any time at all).
1
Obama is in every way a better person than Trump. Trump does things to draw attention to himself and for his own benefit. The class of people that Trump associates with and relates to is a quantum leap down from those of Obama. Every President does commutations and pardons. But you have to look at Trumps and say why would he be doing this at this time. The black woman he released for Kanye and Kim was Trump pandering to the black vote. Black, Kerik and Milken were to show the left whose really in charge. The next pardons will be to pay back those who have protected him from being exposed. That’s the difference.
3
Stunning evidence that ethical behaviour has no place in American life today. It has become a joke in just the short (seems very long) time that Mr. Trump has been president. Little p intended.
7
Trump pardons the guilty, but Obama failed to prosecute the rich and guilty after the housing crisis. Financial penalties instead. All the same criticisms of Trump about two-tiered justice apply to Holder’s doctrine about prosecutions setting off systemic crisis. Trump’s brazen moves are also consistent with Obama’s failure to look into war crimes against Bush and Cheney - he said it was time to look forward. Liberal hypocrisy on this matter is epic. Both Trump and Obama are wrong, but tribal politics is what it is.
2
@X
It's 2020. President Obama is no longer POTUS. This is about Trump. Try to stay on the subject.
5
Kerik is a disgrace to law enforcement. A pardon won't change that.
6
My understanding is that presidential pardons do NOT "wipe away criminal convictions." The punishment is waived, but the conviction stands. I think that's an important distinction to make.
President Trump was reportedly surprised that his previous pardon of Joe Arpaio didn't change the conviction.
2
I believe most Presidents have pardoned convicted criminals, right before they leave office. Even Trump is recognizing his days in office are quickly coming to an end.
4
Many times I have used the Blagojevich case as an example of how the US deals with (blatant) corruption in politics. In Italy, such cases may reach the trial stage and sometimes even conviction, but there is almost always a way to escape by endless appeals and legal stunts to run out the clock on short statue of limitations. The conversations about corrupt European politicians would usually go something like: "...but this could never happen in the US, right?" to which I would respond by describing the trial, conviction, sentencing and handcuffing of Blagojevich, someone who sold the right to represent the interests of the 12 million citizens of Illinois. "...ah yes of course, that is way America is great."
I am disappointed that the president commuted this sentence. Blagojevich is a young, healthy man. I don't understand the justification. In the video, the president says that he saw Blagojevich's wife on TV, that he does not know Blagojevich very well, that Blagojevich had been on his television program The Apprentice. Then, about 30 sec. into the video, he is cut-off as he mentions James Comey and the FBI...
5
In my lifetime of 55 years, the nation of my birth has gone from a mostly-respected nation doing more good than harm in the world and at home all told to a nation that much of the world fears and a nation which its own citizens now fear. I have a colleague who survived the Holocaust and is still optimistic about the future of humankind, but there are days now when I look around me at my nation and I cannot share his optimism. The greed, the selfishness, the hate, the dishonesty, etc. seem, on more days now than not, to be winning over decency, honesty, and respect. On those days, I seek to visit my colleague in hopes to hear of his optimism. I really fear for this nation.
12
I've read the 'Times picks' and the 'Reader's picks' and I share the outrage and the head shaking and the wonder of watching Trump sink lower and ever lower into the swamp he is enlarging. But first and foremost is the question that is in my head: WHY?
Why do presidents even have this power? What use is it?
If this was suggested as a new power for our Prime Minister and I dare say most other first world democracies you'd be laughed out of the house, you'd be sent packing with a note asking you to come back when sober.
And here you have the most corrupt person EVER to hold the reigns in America and he's proving just how nasty, just how bent he is and all his cronies are feeling safe.
How on earth did america sink to this level of corruption, sanctioned corruption by the Republicans and Murdochs media.
18
So Trump dangles red meat again and avoids the headline story that a federal judges association called an emergency meeting to discuss Barr's justice department.Trump is a whole clown but he masterfully manipulates the media.
9
Yes, @LoriHolly, this is yet another distraction. We, the people, and the media, enshrined by the First Amendment, turn our myopic attention to pyrotechnical theatrics as crimes domestic and treasonous are being committed, and our rights and protections are quietly being systematically dismantled. We are but Nero fiddling.
1
All people like Trump himself. Wait, Donald, your time in prison is yet to come.
9
Trump is flaunting his power and taking revenge on the judicial branch and also on Barr for daring to question his absolute authority to do whatever he wants. Trump is completely unfettered now. He is absolutely the worst president in the history of this country. A monster. Thank you republican senators for not standing in his way.
14
Trump is pardoning these criminals because he expects the Senate to pardon his many criminal actions.
6
By pardoning these crooks Trump is simply appointing his lieutenants who within each of their pods, will presumably expand his base. A veritable civilization thicker than thieves. No credibility anywhere on the horizon.
7
Too bad for Al Capone that Trump wasn't president when he was in jail.
8
Big business is licking their chops.
Working class people will have all they have worked for, stolen from beneath them.
impunity and immunity, granted by Mr Trump
11
It’s as if presidential powers are stored in a toy box and a toddler has learned the word , “mine”.
8
Why bury the lede? He pardoned guys who gave money to his campaign (Pogue), to his preinauguration (DeBartolo) and spent time in Mar-a-lago (Kerik). David Frum interviewed someone from Hungary who noted, “The benefit of controlling a modern state is less the power to persecute the innocent, more the power to protect the guilty.”
11
Please explain to me the difference between this and Clinton's pardon of the fraudster Marc Rich?
1
Blagojevich tried to sell a Senate seat to the highest bidder. He also stole money for his pet projects from the financially solvent Teachers Retirement System to finance the same projects that Illinois cannot pay for right now. The man is a first rate crook and in Chicago.... that is saying something. Plus Blagojevich isn’t the only one pardoned....more coming probably after Stone gets sentenced on Thursday
3
Criminals are the only types the dotard identifies with, so he will be happy granting pardons to them so they can reoffend at some stage in the future.
5
But will he pardon The Astros?
3
So this guy conned his base into draining the swamp?
So how come he’s freeing more gators?
7
When my nephew turned one year old, at his first birthday party, he sat in front of his big frosted cake and gleefully smanged down both tiny fists in the middle of it just to watch it spatter and destruct. Again and again, this image comes to mind every time Donald Trump rolls out some new babyish desecration of the office of the presidency.
8
How do these famous African-American men (Jerry Rice and Jim Brown) deal with a duplicitous-double-dealing president who openly courted the votes of white supremacists during the 2016 election?
That should be a primary concern.
Trump knows his Day of Reckoning is approaching.
Surely a soul-sickening time is before us and upon us.
9
If you are walking down 5th. Avenue and Donald Trump is around, you'd better watch out.
11
Trump wielding his pardon power is like a three year old with a cigarette lighter let loose on the deck of a LNG supertanker.
What could possibly go wrong?
6
That’s messed up. How did Bernie Madoff not make that ignoble list?
2
Why not granting posthumous pardon to Al Capone ?
2
Is that swamp fully drained yet, Mr. Trump?
2
Obama pardoned a known drug dealer who shortly after being released was rearrested for
the same crime. Clinton pardoned Marc Rich a billionaire who was living abroad to avoid prosecution for his crimes. Trumps actions pale in comparison to his Democratic predecessor!!!!
Is Mr Trump putting up ever more of a screen to better enable future, more scandalously self serving pardons?
10
"Richard LeFrak, a billionaire real estate magnate and longtime friend; Sheldon G. Adelson, a prominent Republican donor; and Nelson Peltz, a billionaire investor who hosted a $10 million fund-raiser for the president’s 2020 campaign on Saturday, were among those who suggested that Mr. Trump pardon him."
No prizes for guessing what these characters have in common.
13
Apparently, the actions in this article were not guided by DOJ processes. The letter from 2,000 former DOJ attorneys from across Rep and Dem administrations was signed by educated, trained, ethical people. Trump's response to ethical statements is this gross, disgusting action to take guidance from TV ads and friends of the accused. This regime will not end its corrupt and dangerous attack on the American system because decent people including readers of this newspaper are outraged. This regime has no respect for competence in any field. And, it will not end well for us. Vote in every election at every level of government for integrity and competence, as if the future depended on it...because it does. No one is coming to save us. We are all we have.
16
Yesterday I had the honor of supporting and witnessing a young woman who represented herself in Federal immigration court as she sought asylum to remain in the U.S. away from the persecution and death threats she faced in her country by MS13 gangs. As the judge read aloud her denial for granting this young woman asylum, news was being shared of these Presidential pardons. The irony stings.
23
DeBartolo Jr. is in the Hall Of Fame and Art Modell isn't-- Says volumes political nature of selection process.
2
The same way that gun violence has brought MORE guns into schools and churches ,rather than less guns ,pardoning discourages law enforcement from the huge amount of effort it takes to put a white collar criminal in prison.
Essentially trump is breaking down the criminal justice system systemically.
10
This is starting to feel like we’re in a Batman episode from the 60s where the Joker lets out all the criminals and things get really crazy.
15
@Monique Brannon
I am amazed you got your comment allowed as you were pushing the limits of what the moderators will permit in the Gotham City Times.
3
Trump can pardon and parole all the sleazy politicians and businessmen he wants.
The facts remain the Milken will forever be known as the "king of junk bonds" and Rod will forever be known as a critter not as smart as one of our cats.
Kerik? Less said about him the better.
Sanitizing their raps sheets will never sanitize their reputations.
“The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”
8
This is an obscenity!
This is NOT why the President has pardon power. The presidential pardon is for exceptional cases, for those who have already paid their debts,!or for other attributes that make a case unique. It is NOT for sticking to, or mocking, the American Justice System!
This President is no longer a person who does illegal things. He’s a man who seeks out and is proud of committing the corrupt and criminal deed - especially anything that creates profit or self benefit. Crimes of Profit and Opportunity are to be sought out and celebrated! For Republicans.
It’s no longer about character, or even a pretense of integrity. It’s, “I am king, and this is my kingdom to exploit!”
Draining swamps has turned into creating resort swamps for Trumpian gain. But when it comes to Democrats: It’s “her emails!”
The tragedy is that Trump now openly crows about how the law is his to manage to his specifications, while his followers claim he is 100% law abiding!
Meanwhile, Democrats are still tearing at each other’s PC and racial purity credentials - while not even having a language to describe or spotlight Trump’s now daily criminality...
Democrat’s are killing each other, and have given up on having anything effective to say about Trump. The odds of Trump winning simply because Democrats can’t figure out a message, or who the enemy is, are increasing by the day!
15
The wrong people are in jail. The Republicans figure they will get handsome campaign contributions from the criminals they let loose on society.
6
"Trump" is synonymous with "criminal." Can any decent person support him and enable his corruption? No.
13
A great day for America. What a wonderful example to set for our children and the world.
I thought this would happen if trump became a lame duck after the November election. But my assumption is that he’s confident he’ll be re-elected and can do whatever his gut tells him. Our banana republic leader rules with impunity.
Another 4 years of this?
9
It’s a shame John Gotti has already died. Trump could have pardoned him, too.
7
It really makes those of us who respect and obey the law, rather than cut corners to get ahead, feel like a bunch of chumps.
8
White collar criminal treasonous "president" Trump pardons white collar criminals sending signal that he can do whatever he wants and will pardon his friends. Also that he will excpect pardon if he ever gets into trouble, which at this point seems unlikely. Vote him and the republican "Senate" out!
6
The corrupt led by the corrupt: the Trump presidency.
4
A pardon from this president is handy and practical, but kind of a blemish of its own.
2
Evidently, he has gotten religion. He is doing unto others as he would want to be treated. So when his time comes, perhaps others will remember and will pardon him. Hmm.
4
He’s going to be so lonely after he leaves office and has his own day in court with the inevitable consequences. Maybe he’s trying to recruit some WH advisors to help him understand what he’s going to face once his presidential immunity from prosecution ends . Or perhaps he’s just creating a squad of future visitors. In any event, this series of actions just might be his ‘5th Avenue shooting’ ...the final straw. We can only hope.
3
You know it's bad when even the Washington Examiner disapproves of these pardons.
7
President Trump has a soft spot in his heart for corrupt government officials who get caught.
Like everything he does, it is self-serving.
12
Truth, Justices, and the American way does not exist under trump.
trump has given get out of jail cards to people just like him.
1
As thousands of former justice employees write to express grave concerns and federal judges hold a emergency meeting to address inappropriate DOJ interventions, the president seems to be enthralled with this latest display of power. His pardons and commutations, rather than the result of consideration, prudence, and compassion (not qualities he has necessarily been shown to embrace), seem largely based on who he sees on the television during "executive time."
6
Can anyone set aside their partisan bais and answer this simple question. Which is worse, these pardons, or the lack of charges against those responsible for the 2008 meltdown?
5
R.B., Great question. I agree with you that of course the 2008 principals ought to have faced justice. The justice needed and you cite wasn't applied by the DOJ and Obama didn't pursue, was wrong. But justice was applied to those excused by Trump on Terrible Tuesday, and it is Trump's action that is the greater wrong by hid tossing aside justice applied for his own political reasons.
2
@RB
I can answer that.
The thinking on why the white collar criminals were not being prosecuted is complicated.
Mainly, while it is easy to identify the systematic wrongdoing that allowed the housing bubble to burst, it's much harder to pin blame, at least in the way a court might approve of, on an individual within that system.
As I understand it from reading Sam Buell’s book “Capital Offenses”
it's likely that these cases weren't brought because it's very difficult to establish a theory of criminal fraud when you have essentially one sophisticated bank trader selling a product to another bank trader. In a criminal case you've got to prove intent to deceive—that is, you've got to prove that there was an individual who at the time they sold that security to the other banker knew that what they were saying was false about that security. These are hard cases to make.
And I think that because people in this country were very afraid, scared about what was happening, Obama wanted to restore a calm stability to the country.
Meanwhile, banking regulations were being passed to prevent this from happening again. And these regulations have been weakened by trump ever since he has been in office.
4
In the case of the governor from Illinois this made the most sense. Although he may have had the intent to commit the crime he did not. There was no victim and there was no money exchanged. He was simply convicted for his thought… Which is not a crime…Just as the eye cannot commit trespass
1
@Rob
Well, that is incorrect.
You can get charged for planning a crime. Planning a bank robbery and get caught, you can be charged with a crime. Planning on hiring someone to murder your spouse and get caught, you can be charged. Planning on selling a Senate seat, you can be charged.
5
I’m shocked that Bernie Madoff wasn’t also pardoned. Or is he only giving pardons to his buddies? This is Trump’s strike against Cuomo and New York’s bail reform law.
1
trump is beneath contempt but the problem is the millions of our fellow citizens who support him. He’ll be gone soon enough. What do we do with them?
9
The expected quid pro quo will be that the pardoned will use their wealth and contacts to raise money in support of his presidential re-election campaign.
8
Could we commute the sentence of Donald Trump as the President?
4
Pardon me while I walk into my quiet room and just scream.
OK, done for now.
9
I thought there was a system of checks and balances in the design of our government. Where is the check on this president?
3
You do know that he’s going to continue to destroy the rule of law and all noms of decent conduct (you know, your basic social infrastructure) until you actively stop him.
14
@Laura Secord
We do know.
It's just a matter of getting that pesky 40 percent of Americans ( or a least a large enough percentage of them to decide he must go) to know and vote him out.
4
When Americans decide to take a flier on despotism and corruption to see what that looks like...
3
Aunty Entity would be aghast. In those immortal words from Thunderdome.
“You think I don't know the law? Wasn't it me who wrote it? And I say that this man has broken the law. Right or wrong, we had a deal. And the law says: bust a deal and face the wheel!”
This rogues gallery faced the wheel and won a reprieve.
4
The founders of the US might be taking turns in the graves to know that there would be a day when the crime will reign supreme and the law of the land will be banished from the US. Isn't it a brutal killing of the very idea of America as is to be seen now under the Trump dispensation.
7
why is there such a big deal with this? most have served all of part of their sentence and by accepting the part it is automatically an "imputation of guilt". they are still guilty. their punishment stays intact as a criminal record. can they 'sue' the government for their imprisonment or fine? to use the vernacular - they will always be crooks. right not they are crooks with their lips attached to Trumps behind...
1
Those pardons of the likes of Milken and all the damage he caused: what an insult to the decency of the American people.
9
Trump and his belligerence and impunity are examples of American attitudes to the rest of the planet, as if you own it, like Trump seems to own the media.
Time for a little humility as the U S and the NYT race to elect Bloomberg as the saviour from Trump and the perpetuation of a land of the slave and home of the thief to paraphrase Mr. DuBois.
The only reason Trump isn’t pilloried and humiliated is he sells papers. Some people would destroy and pervert what the citizen needs for a decent life, health care, education and security. Don’t see that in the greatest democracy money can buy.
2
Why should we be surprised, there are multiple reasons why Trump is pardoning these criminals. He is undoing yet another thing that was done during Obama’s presidency, going back to hate and contempt for someone who is revered, loved, and yes, is more intelligent, and more polished than he. In addition to that, he doesn’t see these acts as crimes, he has committed These kinds of crimes all his life and got away with it, and doesn’t see anything wrong with what these guys have done.
4
The irony if it was Giuliani advising Trump on the pardon of Milken.
3
Could this president be more comic book super-villainy? It’s like he’s busting out of jail all of the super villains as a preface to some massive and world altering evil scheme. Is he about to fuse our universe with its evil twin? Or open a portal at the bottom of the ocean? is trump actually this evil? Or does he just think Batman 2 is cool? How do I exit this movie? And why hasn’t spidey come yet?
4
If Trump pardons Roger Stone, my cringe factor will ratchet up by a factor of ten.
1
Doesn’t this scare you? A president that think he is above the law, doesn’t that scare you? It scares me and I live across the world from you...
13
What is even more amazing is how HRC tampered with evidence, destroyed evidence under subpoena, ran the biggest pay for play operation in history, had a secret server at her house that China hacked so they would get a copy of every Email that she sent, and is not prosecuted.
1
Really? Is that the best you can come up with? Every time this bait tape replays, it becomes more “enhanced.”
8
It’s like all the prisoners in the Gotham City jail have been let out of their cells.
6
If we don't vote this mentally ill man out of office in November, this is what we have to look forward to for another four, long and dismal years. By then, we might not have a democracy or a country any longer.
10
@Pamela L.
The Dems, with their policy on open borders, are working fast towards destroying our country, anyway.
The headline "Trump Grants Clemency . . ." would be more accurate were it, "Republican Party grants clemency to fellow grifters."
Trump is mentally ill. The Republicans, like my senator, Cory Gardner, are not. They delivered autocratic power to Russia's choice of the best person to harm the US. Gardner & his fellow citizens pardoned these villains as they destroyed the rule of law, the right of their fellow citizens to vote, credibility in gov't and the quaint notion that truth matters.
Trump is running the country as he ran his businesses: selling favors for power and money, accumulating debt that can never be paid back, lying about his accomplishments and abilities to win over marks- in this case Republican voters.
15
What was that part of our education that emphasized America was not going to be like England, no King, no autocratic rulers, but a country with new unknown rules called a Constitution. So what did our forefathers do, they gave autocratic powers to the president that allowed the judicial system to be meaningless. The only thing that counted was the president could overturn what the courts decided, and a convicted person can walk away a free person. Thanks for the lies George, Thomas, John, etc., etc., etc......More lies and deceit from our government.
2
In a way, how can one be surprised? Maybe, just maybe, if one looks into a crystal ball, we are beginning to see Cabinet 2021...
2
This is just a continuation of the present regime normalizing the concept of abuse of power. As the public becomes inured to the continuing demonstration of presidential whims in favor of fellow members of the entitled class, we descend further and further away from the notion that we are living in a democratic republic.
This president may be laying the groundwork for his finally releasing his taxes later this year, with the expectation that it will be greeted by a shrug from his loyalists no matter what it reveals. As for the rest of the country, anything beyond passive acceptance can always be tempered by nipping it in the bud with a self-pardon. Any criticism of the leader surely would be "a disgrace." And unless regime change happens in November, we can look forward to a further slide towards the welcoming embrace of Vladimir Putin.
2
Trump keeps swimming in an ever deepening swamp. He never had any intention of "draining" it, only expanding it for his own benefit. The points made here are outlined in "How democracies die" (2017) by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, a book on why rise of Trump threatens democracy in U.S. They provide examples of other countries that have recently turned to authoritarian leaders (Venezuela, Poland, Hungary, Russia, previously Chile and Argentina, etc.), who have attempted to gain non-democratic power by “capturing referees” (co-opting judiciary and media, etc.), “sidelining players” (e.g. impeaching or disbanding opposition legislators), and “changing rules” (changing constitutions, voting rules, executive orders, etc.). A second Trump term would bring us very close to these banana republics, and it's not clear we would ever return to actual democracy.
3
Among the best parts of readers' comments is that it helps me realize that I what I've just read is real and not a bad dream. This is just another of the daily nightmares of the rapid take-down of our nation. I'm thinking of Nero, the brutal and petty last ruler of the Julio-Claudius dynasty, who set a section of the city on fire because he wanted to renovate it for his own use. He blamed the Jews for the fire and proceeded to have a garden party, using live people covered in tar as lighting for his evening gathering.
I think it's not overstating to say Trump is already having his fun making human sacrifices of innocent people, while he parties with his corrupt pals and burns the US to the ground. At least Nero is reported to have had some musical talent...
9
The only certain thing is that trump got a lot of money for the pardons.
4
Well, it's like the Obama administration, which didn't jail a single banker for giving out predatory loans, defrauding millions of Americans, stealing their homes, and destroying the economy, which also led to the deaths of millions of family pets. In fact, the banks were bailed out, and essentially rewarded for their criminal actions (predatory loans are still out there - my bank offered me one recently). So crime really pays in Scamerica, no matter who sits in the Oval Office! And Trump was a criminal long before he ran for president - so was Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the predatory loan king himself. Another country would put these people in jail. I'm not allowed to say here what I would like to do to them. Some of the sleaziest crooks who ever lived are running our government. Politicians have become even sleazier than contractors.
3
If I dont see this nonstop come November, the DNC, Bloomberg, Steyer, Soros, and all the other rich left leaning individuals of this country have failed us. This is ridiculous on so many levels.
1
Just in case you were wondering what our government would look like without all those annoying checks and balances.
9
Many crooks are created in the crucible of Queens New York. I'm simply not surprised by this story. It's par for the Trump course you might say.
1
Welcome to the new day of America, the banana republic. Just yesterday, Trump brayed on twitter that "America is open for business." Allow me to lightly edit Trump's statement. "America is open for shady business." There, that's better.
6
The main question is about the President's pardon power. Is it an uncontrolled power or is it respectful of the Justice Dept. recommendation procedure? Is there a double standard justice? What can be said of immigration crackdown through the deployment of special squads in sanctaury cities to roundup undocumented immigrants?
1
The pardon power is completely within every president's right and 45 is exercising it as he pleases.
Stop following this president down these rabbit holes of outrage.
Focus on the important things like controlling the DOJ, filling the judiciary, no infrastructure, Mexico isn't paying for the wall, Europe's choice to work with Huawei & flout U.S. requests, graft, etc.
@June
You are absolutely correct. We drive under/over bridges that look like they could collapse at any moment, and in roads with huge potholes that look like sinkholes. Yet, we worry about which one of the slick politicians we will award the big price to. Wake up!
1
Thank God, in whom we trust, for all the checks and balances on governmental power enshrined in the Constitution!
Hmmm. This seems all familiar... wasn’t this what happened in LEGO Batman???
1
Yikes, our nation has a President 'out of control' pardoning political & business crooks - then, he throws in a few bad guys from the sports world. So, between today and November 3rd, 2020, if there are more Trumpster pals like Roger Stone caught by law enforcement for crimes and locked up they can go on being liars - expecting a Trump pardon.
1
It’s obvious what’s going on. He trying to outrage Justice Department employees so they leave, and then he can hand pick his own swamp creatures for those jobs.
3
Three things this teaches us about Trump:
1. He can't conceive of Capitalism without corruption.
2. He is a Capitalist to the core.
3. He will always protect the corrupt.
4
'This concerns me, how will it affect my re-election prospects?'
- Susan Collins
5
According to Trump the US criminal justice system is unfair and US laws are, in Trump's mind, also unfair when applied to his friends, people he knows or friends of people he knows. Another example why he must not be re-elected. This surely is abusive use of his power as the POTUS.
1
As usual, Trump is thinking of himself. If he doesn't pardon these crooks, who will pardon him?
8
The problem with all of Trump's comments and pardons is the question "What does Trump expect these people to give him?" This tit-for-tat is totally new for a US president, or at least new that this activity is so blatant. But this is just Trump being Trump. The office of president did not change his behavior, as some claimed it would. He is what he is. And what he is, is unfit for the office he holds. Bigly.
7
To the future Attorney General I make my plea: Add every commuted or pardoned sentence given today to Trump’s sentence when justice eventually takes its rightful course. Lady Liberty is waiting in the wings with shackles to pillory this present lawless regime.
6
Boy I hope none of the guys involved in the crippling of the American housing market Wall Street mtg scams and banking crisis are on the list. Oh I forgot Obama’s administration couldn’t take the time to prosecute any so I guess they couldn’t be.
4
@Pl: You took the words out of my mouth. I find myself entertained hearing the bleating of outraged sheep.
1
Trump Grants Clemency to Blagojevich, Milken and Kerik
and pardoned or commuted the sentences of eight others on Tuesday, including Edward DeBartolo, a former owner of the San Francisco 49ers.
Because Trump believes the Democratic Primaries are distracting Americans from what's important; and "attention must be paid".
1
Guess what, none of this matters. Trump is surging in the polls. He's acquitted and unshackled. He can do anything he wants and will cruise to reelection. RIP America.
7
Apparently, the attorney general has gotten way too much attention this week. So here we have it: Another please “look at me because I matter more moment.”
6
Trump is like a reverse Robin Hood, cheered on by the very people from whom he steels. This chapter has him going around and pardoning all the white collar criminals and confidence men he can. If this was a novel ten years ago no one would have the suspension of disbelief to get through it.
5
After two days of evidence presentation by House Managers in the Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump, John Barrasso, Republican Senator of Wyoming said he had already heard enough.
Senator Barrasso, it has been two weeks since the ‘acquittal’ of Trump.
Have you heard enough?
1
Apparently Donald Trump has been waking up in a sweat from bad dreams about once-powerful people serving long prison sentences.
3
To an extent, one is judged by the company one keeps. Trump lays bare his inherent venality and contempt for all norms of civil society with these pardons. Probably he recipients will all be featured at his next State of the Union speech, God forbid. Front and center in the rogue's gallery.
With the rest of Trump's spineless Republican enablers.
How did this great country go so far off the rails? The Trump era, however long or short it may be, will be evaluated by history as the greatest train wreck of modern times.
7
Some years ago I joined my cute little nephews & nieces, about 5-9 years old on the sofa as they watched a superhero cartoon which had the most amusing plot: the superheroes led by Superman, formed an institution called "The Justice League," and the villains, led by Lex Luther, formed "The Legion of Doom."
I hadn't thought about that cartoon for years, but when I see Trump as president in charge of the Executive Branch, releasing these hoodlums from jail, I can't help thinking of Lex Luther and the Legion of Doom. I feel like I'm seeing that same cabal of evil. It's almost funny, like the show, but this time it's for real.
It's also a lot like those westerns (or contemporary Latin American drug cartel stories) where the chief outlaw busts his gang out of jail.
4
Based on recent events, Presidential pardons, the impeachment process and the Iowa caucuses are three elements of our political process that need to be thoroughly reviewed and fixed.
1
"Previous presidents have often waited until the final moments of their presidencies to wield the pardon power on behalf of their friends." No problem, it's coming soon.
1
First he will pardon those who committed crimes he would commit (or has committed) himself. The next logical step is to start arresting those he considers his enemies (he has made it clear who those are), followed by those he considers troublemakers because they don't agree with his agenda. This is the dawn of all authoritarian regimes. We ignore the signs at our own peril. Dangerous and dark times are here.
7
New Presidential campaign slogan: "You do the crime, I'll commute the time.....!"
It is good to pardon and forgive, but the justice system has delegated the process of acquitting, convicting, placing on Probation, Appealing. or granting Parole to Judges, Jury, and Parole Boards. And this applies to both Civil and Military Justice.
Interfering in the process subverts Justice.
2
When the democrats finally decided to impeach Trump it was necessary even if the ultimate result would be ‘failure’; senate republicans were more loyal to the president than to the country. But the process had to be completed so every issue, every fact, every argument would be detailed and encased in an historical document.
Like many, I feared that after ‘winning’ Trump would be stronger and perhaps have a better chance of re election. With the democratic candidate still a question, that fear remans.
However, since his ‘victory’ Trump’s behavior has astounded me. If blatant were a product he is both the factory that produces it and a warehouse brimming with it. His actions are almost laughable, except that as president there is always the potential for danger.
I trust our military to show leadership so we will not be drawn into any major conflict and over the next 10 months some version of stability will exist.
The real damage is to the republican party; they are beyond ‘all in’. They are shell shocked, and every day their power wanes as the president, desperate for re election, does, basically whatever he wants.
For what remains of the republican party Trump is a bad habit, a festering wound, and a dismal excuse all rolled into one.
3
I have much more of a problem with overall harsh sentencing in this country. Without getting into specifics here, there are numerous crimes with multi-year sentences, and of course associated loss of reputation, employment, and most of what you own. Many of these are in fact thought crimes, not assaults, theft, murder, etc. The folks mentioned here are somewhere in the middle I suppose, but e.g. Blagojevich...eight years does seem sufficient to me. Trump is clearly biased however.
For Donald Trump, the process of granting pardons and clemency and commuting sentences is particularly attractive. Instead of involving the bureaucracy, the Department of Justice or the courts, President Trump hands out the goodies personally like King Donald atop his throne, with a special focus on helping celebrity criminals.
This Trumpian flurry of granting dispensations from the wheels of justice appears to be a prelude to interfering in the Roger Stone case. Pressuring for a reduction in Stone’s sentencing will be lost in the shuffle of yesterday’s activity, and Donald Trump will not have to worry that a few months from now Roger the Dodger will spill the beans.
The Rod Blagojevich sentencing of 14 years was fair. Rod forgot that wealthy individuals and corporate America are only allowed to buy government policy in America through unlimited political contributions (lobbying, super pacs), but no, the wealthy aren't allowed to buy their own personal Senate seats when they rarely become vacated.
19
There are people being put in jail because they can't pay their medical bills. They are more deserving of pardons than these guys.
56
Yes, but those normal people won’t scratch Trump’s back when he’s finally no longer in office.
3
I don't know why Trump would allow these criminals to be set free. I am also surprised that there isn't more backlash over this. Is Trump just undoing the work of others just to poke fun at them? In my opinion, Trump should receive more backlash for doing this.
20
Ideally, in late Nov. or worse case 4 years later, there is some legal precedent to overturn these pardons.
Something's got to give in this alternate universe that Trump seems to reside in
16
I don't claim to know all the rights and responsibilities of the three branches of government. That said, I have to believe that the judicial branch (the Supreme Court) has some real responsibility to stop Trump dead in his tracks. A few states could get together to petition the judiciary to hear their constitutional grievances. Chief Justice Roberts could push those positions for an immediate hearing by the full Supreme Court. Am I being naive that us "little people" have rights too?
14
@george - us little people have very little rights!
It’s ironic that an impeached president, above the law, can get away with pardoning like criminals!
1
Guess this was an easy way to garner a few more votes and potentially raise a bit more campaign contributions for November, or recruit some future business partners. Perhaps the president needed to expand the pool of potential cabinet and and staff recruits for the remainder of this first term and the next. His turnover is high.
11
is there a reason for all of these pardons? wouldn't it be dangerous not to look into it and just brush it off. with Donald Trumps recent Accusations i feel us as Americans should be a little more Cautious.
5
There are now two Wall Street leaders pardoned. One paid and paid to get it done. The other one questioned the president petitioned about his most personal behavior and was told repeatedly that the president would not issue a pardon.
These two pardons feature a president with a conscience and a president without. They feature the most successful criminal in Wall Street history and a man framed by Rudy Giuliani who used a wash sale for evidence, something his victim did not know for years.
Two Wall Street pardons. One cost nothing. AG Nick Katzenbach acted pro bono at his request. The best things in life are free. The only crime was the pleading. The other cost millions and there will be other costs in time.
Trump is liable to need the help he gives, and it will be costly.
4
Trump feels empathy for these guys, as these are the business models he respects.
14
Trump pardons reflect what our president believes will help him. He’s not focused on justice or fairness. He’s serving the most wealthy and most guilty and himself. In a sense, Trump is following the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Trump knows he faces justice and he knows he will need the mercy of a president or a governor. Trump pardons himself as he pardons those least deserving, most wealthy, most guilty.
12
There is a single GOP Senator that can speak out about this, now, without hypocrisy.
It will be interesting to see how the other 52 comes to terms with our new system of justice and form of government.
11
The timing of these pardons makes no sense unless they are being used as a buildup to cover his planned pardons of Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, and Michael Flynn. Trump has turned the DOJ, via AG Barr, into his very own political tool to reward his allies and punish his enemies. Our founding fathers would turn over in their graves if they could see what Trump has done to their Constitution and our democracy.
24
They are all possible customers at a Trump property is why.
7
Trump is still celebrating his escape from impeachment. This is a way to show his contempt for the law and that he believes he is the law now.
36
Do people care about morals and character any more?
18
If Trump says someone “seems like a nice person” or is “a good guy,” chances are he is a criminal, convicted or otherwise.
20
Thank you, thank you, for using the word "criminals."
13
There we go, that's a good dictator.
I wonder, when Trump watches Brian DeDPalma's 1987 classic, The Untouchables, is he rooting for Robert De Niro's Al Capone or Kevin Costner's Elliot Ness?
11
@C. M. Jones
excellent cinematic question and the answer is Al Capone since Trump is a wanna-be mob boss
If these rich white guys were REALLY "doing the time" instead of sitting it out (teaching other inmates! sure, that's hard time....) I could see the pardons and commutations. But, these guys are NOT "in prison" ;they are in the equivalent of federal country clubs. Until they sweat a lot, a whole lot, they deserve no sympathy. There's a guy in Texas whose spent decades in jail for a crime he did not commit or so the justice system agrees, but he can't get out until they jump through a lot of hoops but the old governor, he's out the next day. That is NOT justice, it is favoritism. Lock 'em back up. They are liars, thieves, and grifters just like Trump.
24
Our nation's degradation is complete. The rule of law means nothing under this president.
35
@sunell
Not our nation.
The Republican party that has enabled Trump.
Senate Republicans could have and should have impeached Trump. Instead they conducted a sham trail without calling witnesses or allowing new evidence. Help make November a Blue Tsunami that dwarfs the huge 2018 Blue Wave that swept Republicans from the House. Take back the Senate and the White House from corrupt Republicans who failed to defend our Constitution and blindly protect a Putin-loving Trump.
VOTE BLUE NO MATTER WHO
2
The pardon power has been abused enough, take it away from the presidency and eliminate it.
23
The corruption of the stable genius (SG) has been in the public sphere for years. He is known to have ties to organized crime. The SG has declared bankruptcy 6 times. He has failed to pay bank loans and his bills. When American banks stopped funding the SG’ projects the only bank willing to give him loans was Deutsche Bank. This organization has a history of money laundering and other issues when it comes to obeying the law.
The SG has been a public figure for much of his life. He hasn’t been just some Joe Schmoe. And yet American law enforcement agencies didn’t think the SG’ activities warranted scrutiny for over 30 years? The SG should have been in jail years before he ran for president.
Could it be that American law enforcement didn’t touch him because he is white and rich? Because of the failure of our justice system the SG has brought corruption to a level never seen before in the White House.
BTW: Does the SG do anything without receiving something in return? I wonder just what he is getting for these pardons.
And with this action is he setting the stage for pardoning Stone and all his loyal buddies?
16
Conveniently timed for after his impeachment acquittal by a complicit GOP Senate. Just wait until (if) he wins a second term. And we’re in a tizzy about Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy in NYC and Buttigieg’s rise in marijuana arrests under his tenure as mayor. Wake up people. We have a complete undermining of our judicial system happening in plain sight, with fraud and corruption freely touted as okay by the President of the United States.
18
Meanwhile, somewhere on some state's death row, there's a prisoner of color who's been falsely convicted and sentenced to death, just dying to get a pardon from the King. If anyone wanted any more evidence that this is a criminal administration/organization...look no further. Protecting their own as Rome burns and Nero tweets.
17
Such compassion and grace.
4
What Trump is basically saying with these pardons is that these aren't "real criminals". They're just really smart and successful (white) people who were being persecuted for "wanting to get ahead".
In other words, they are mirror images of the way he thinks of himself!
11
This is just another norm destroyed by Trump. Up until now Trump has been reigned in by the rule of law. He is now destroying that which put the breaks on his misdeeds. If there is no punishment, there are no misdeeds.
7
Under Trump crime does pay. He's freeing his felonious friends to emphasize this fact.
6
Hmmmmmm!
What about those in prison for low level cannabis offenses?
13
I loved it when Obama pardoned all those sentenced on low level non-violent drug crimes. True greatness. That was so much better than this obvious abuse of power.
15
Trump is really really good at being on the take.
So he pardons his fellow grifters and bullies.
Making America weak and unethical.
20
Every election we elect not a man, but a regime. Your vote brings into office not just a President but a set of officials who carry with them an ideology or a point of view. I had wondered when Trump got elected, as an outsider, who would make up his regime. And this is the answer, his main allegiance is to crooks and thieves and corrupt officials. These are his people. We’ve seen it in so many ways, but surely no more clearly than on the day he parsons a politician for selling a Senate seat.
Remember, anyone who stand with Trump, stands with criminals, fraudsters, and dirty politicians. They are the antithesis of all that is good.
19
If Obama had arrested and put Osama in the prison, Trump would have released Osama just to stick it to Obama and the Republicans would have found a way to justify it.
22
In other words, He Who Must Not Be named, has freed his brethren from Azkaban.
9
This, and other ancient laws granting the president similar dictatorial powers, this is the issue. Obama, Clinton etc. shouldn't have been able to either.
4
I can't decide which I'd prefer to see: Trump behind bars or Trump in bankruptcy court.
12
Don’t pretend you didn’t know this would happen if you voted for Trump. It’s what you voted for if you did.
15
Selling a senate seat sounds bad, but it is an accusation easily abused to get rid of someone in politics. There is money and favors changing hands in government routinely.
1
@Ivan - There are robberies and theft taking place everywhere routinely. Are you condoning those?
Selling a Senate seat IS bad. Please try to keep that in mind.
19
Except, a) Blago was on tape doing it, and b) no, this isn’t typical.
13
He knows that he need a Presidential Pardon for himself after Nov, 2020 Presidential Election, if he cannot win for Campaign Finance Violation of 2016 Election for which his former attorney Michael Cohen serving time right now.
4
Trump creates a distraction when he doesn’t want people to pay attention. These pardons are a distraction from the book “ Dark Towers “ about Trump and Deutsche bank that came out today.
17
Roger Stone has a tattoo of Nixon on his back. If he adds one of Trump, on his chest, he has a pardon sewn up.
12
Can we call this undraining the swamp?
4
@David
How about swamping the drain?
10:05 EST, 2/19
For the first time in my adult life, I'll be a "single issue" voter this year -- that issue will be to get trump out of office. Same goes for his Republican lackeys in Congress who protect and enable him at all costs to the country. I don't feel great about it, but the damage that trump and the GOP will do if they retain control has left me no choice.
We can debate what's wrong with the Democratic party, but Democrats aren't the existential threat that Trump and the GOP are. Not even close. As a lifelong Republican until 2016, I don't say that lightly.
Whether you support him or not, Joe Biden is right -- this year's elections will be for the "soul" of our country.
54
@Roberta You are so right. I support Biden too but above all I’m voting to get Trump out of office so am willing to vote for whoever my fellow rational Americans decide is the candidate.
This is our only chance. No one else can stop him; only we voters. We gotta pull together and fight for our country.
20
I always look to friends and business associates for advice on legal issues. I mean, really, they are the best sources of good advice on he subject, right?
3
May I add, AG Katzenbach petitioned for me pro bono. He asked if I would allow him to represent me to President Clinton. I paid no one for Nick’s help.
1
With Bloomberg is raising, Trump needs all the campaign donations he can get. Presidential power is foe sale.
9
Can convicted felons make campaign contributions? If not, can pardoned felons? If so, there's your answer.
12
@Lynne
Funny you should mention that. The Daily Beast says that Paul Pogue’s family donated over $200,000 to the Trump Victory Fund.
So it goes.
6
No more presidential pardons. Let's add that one to the list, if our democracy survives long enough to fix it.
10
These pardons suggest that President Trump appreciates a pay to play political system.
Ugh.
10
Well we now know what he thinks of selling off Senate seats - no problem while he is in power. Chilling.
11
Why anyone would vote Republican now is beyond me as they are Trump's enablers.
15
"the president’s announcements on Tuesday were mostly aimed at wiping clean the slates of rich, powerful and well-connected white men." Nothing new here! Trump pardoned people like himself---Criminals, crooks, immoral losers who really do deserve to serve their time. So much for law and order in Trump's America. Let's Make America Great Again For The Rich White Men (who commit crimes).
9
It’s freeing the extortionists and mobsters. Then when he pardons these corrupt businessmen and government officials under the false pretense that it’s his prerogative and that it’s business as usual. He normalizes this fraudulent and corrupt behavior and his actions totally contradict his slogans of ending corruption within the government which helped him get elected in the first place.
9
Seems he DID learn his lesson.
3
Releasing people with expertise for board membership of a newly minted company?
1
Normalizing pardons for all the crimes he and his wretched family and hangers-on have committed since entering politics. Dear god, what has our judiciary, our executive, and what's left of the legislature come to? Oh, right: it's so the next Republican president will do the same for them...
7
Seems Trump is looking at the prospect of losing the upcoming election and wants to hand out favors to his friends as long as he is able to do so.
16
I don't see any comments expressing the suspicion that there's some quid pro quo involved here. Is it crazy to guess that Trump anticipates getting into deeper political hot water (e.g., if he loses in November) and will want to be able to call upon a cadre of well-connected folks, all of whom owe him a favor?
10
Clearly Manafort's pardon is pending and imminent, no question. trump owes it to him for his own freedom as Manafort deliberately did not co-operate with the Mueller investigation.
8
Trump is such a progressive. It’s just he is pushing the envelope on things the progressive left don’t like.
Trump never paid attention to Rod Blagojevich until very recently. Proven by Trump saying "I've been thinking about this for a few years."
Roger Stone is next since Trump says "I haven't given it any thought."
Pardons are just for practice. Pick some bad ones and then add Stone and Flynn etc.
2
To be fair, Trump's pardons are hardly the first controversial pardons. There was George H.W. Bush's pardons of those involved in Iran Contra, a scandal in which he himself was implicated. There was Bill Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich on his way out the door. And there was George W. Bush's pardon of Scooter Libby.
All of it makes me think that perhaps it is time to revamp the pardon power so as to prevent presidents from pardoning anyone who was a member of their own administration (or another administration in which both the president and the potential pardon recipient were members, and also anyone with whom the President has had any past association. (Trump had such an association with Blagojevich through his show, Celebrity Apprentice.)
Trump didn't invent this particular form of corruption; he's just taking it to a new extreme.
12
What bothers me most is the apparent lack of outrage on the part of a single Republican congressman at Trump's recent shredding of the rule of law.
What we are seeing is the transformation from rule of law to one man rule. Can't Republicans see that? Or are they OK with that because is it their man?
16
I think we knew something like this would happen after he was declared "above the law" after his acquittal by the Senate. He believes he has absolute power now to do as he pleases without consequences.
8
I don't notice any mentions of the pardoning of Michael Milken. Perhaps it is too long ago for many. In the early 1980s, Milken (and associates) made the phrase "greed is good" popular. He single handedly ruined many foundational American businesses like Singer and Sears. Businesses that had made the mistake of diversifying too far. Milken developed the model for buying these large businesses under protest, then selling off the profitable parts and leaving an empty debt overladen hulk of a company. He was prosecuted and convicted and spent some time in jail, paying a fine of $500 million in the process. That didn't leave him poor. He is now back on top of the business world and organizes a global forum called the Milken Institute Global Conference. It is considered by many to be a very desirable ticket.
Milken is the ultimate manipulator. Trump has made a career of manipulating the real estate, tax and financial industries to make money off of anyone he can bully instead of providing a business product that people want to buy. Milken must be a mentor.
It is despicable that Milken has reignited his financial career and become successful once again. It is more than despicable that Milken has now been pardoned, particularly because he in many ways is responsible for the decline and deterioration of the American way of life, providing a path forward for the regressionary tactics of Trump and the Republican Party.
22
I want to hear Lamar Alexander now.
As the senior Republican Senator acquitting [ie, supporting, enabling] Trump and thus giving all GOP senators easier choices to do the same, we have to wonder how Alexander feels now that he can see plainly where his "innocent" client is headed.
14
So what is the basis for pardons? Is there any criteria or is it entirely at the whim of whoever is the current President?
Merit?
Objective criteria?
Connections?
The article states "citing what he said was advice from friends and business associates".
Doesn't seem like POTUS is fulfilling his promise to drain the swamp (unless he meant getting out of the penal swamp people who have done things he has or would like to do himself).
I'd suggest there needs to be some criteria for making such pardons non-political or bipartisan.
4
Yet more diversion tactics by Trump.
He's hoping that the Dems will abhor him more and more - to the point that they end up picking Bloomberg as their choice to run against him because "Anybody will be better than Trump."
Not necessarily.
Trump or Bloomberg. Either one would be pleased to see the other win, and either one would continue to do the bidding of the 1 per centers.
They're all frightened to death of Sanders' soaring popularity.
U.S. politics is no longer about Dems and Republicans. It's about the established oligarchy versus people of conscience.
May the force be with the Sanders team.
4
Hey buddy same as last election the fix is in . Never Bernie forever.
Maybe it’s time a governor or 2 had the courage to do what Trump is doing along these lines. We won’t agree on all of them but certainly many of these pardons/commutations are deserved and in the interest of justice. And in the interest of the United States of America Healing and forgiveness is the goal after all let’s stop the hatred
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I wonder why this report did not include a complete list of the names of those pardoned, for the record, even as it focused on the famous and infamous.
The verdict is still out on whether or not Trump understands that pardoning criminals is an admission of their guilt, but apparently, by 'drain the swamp,' Trump meant he'd let convicted criminals out of prison early.
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Come on! After 4 years, its hardly drain the swamp, more like breed the swamp.
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Once again Trump bends the rule of law to his will. Nearly none of these individuals were deserving of a pardon and prior requests had been declined. It sends the message that white collar crime pays particularly if you have friends in high places.
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Trump pardons criminals as his latest news cycle distraction while his boss Putin bombs millions of Syrians, 900,000 of whom have in recent days fled to the Turkish border and are living out in the cold.
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Trump's assembling a grand coalition of the shilling. Rather than drain the swamp, he is turning it into a bottomless cesspool.
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And where are his friends the Evangelicals in this one? Any handy glorious Biblical predictions come to mind?
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you mean to say he pardoned people he knows or are in his circle, what a scandal!
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So much for draining the swamp... Trump Is the swamp.
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If Trump is elected again, his next outrage will be appointing himself president for life.
The man is blatantly displaying dictatorial traits and playing the American people for fools.
Wake up!
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so let me get this straight, people who commit white collar crimes are not worthy of clemency only low level drug offenders?!?! You should read yesterday's oped on Bernie Madoff...
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@charles so why was Madoff not pardoned, this is a person in the same high white collar range who actually should have been pardoned, many years served and (I believe) terminal cancer. But somehow Trump only wanted to pardon his friends and people in the high end thievery.
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But not the black woman in Texas who is serving 5 years for accidentally voting in the wrong district? I thought presidential pardons were to right a miscarriage of justice, not to reward his buds.
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Well Trump would know a crook if he saw one.
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I’m sick and tired of trump patting the backs of those who break the law, while he fires those who uphold the law! Has anyone ever noticed how he has never publicly even touched his youngest son? Ever? The man is made of stone...solid rock from the neck up.
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America is now a land of White Collar Criminals protected by the State, more specifically the President. It is a lot of liars, fraudsters, corrupt men and outright thugs that have money and political clout or connections that rule the US today. It won't continue this way. It can't! The good decent smart people of America are going to revolt. Possibly mega revolution is coming!
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I agree they are called the Clintons.
SO, what do the blue-collar Trump supporters have to say to this? I would love to see them delude themselves into thinking that Trump will pardon them or anyone else they know for any time they are doing or have done. Keep dreaming.
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@Sam
His supporters will only cling to him more strongly. Remember, this is the Trump who was going to “look into” paying the legal fees for the man who sucker-punched a protester during a campaign rally in North Carolina. Wether he paid or not is immaterial, he said he would and that is enough for them.
Yes these guys have been technically pardoned, but a “Trump Pardon” is an ignoble thing. Whether it’s racist sheriffs or sociopathic SEALs, a “Trump Pardon” isn’t the same as a pardon from a real President. It’s akin to Caligula naming his horse a Senator.
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Reading about pardons for these people and about their “institutes.”
Daily we are sinking to new lows in our society. Deplorable...
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And Republicans just stay silent. Hmmmm
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Here is our criminal in chief releasing his doppelgängers by the busload. You know he positions in his kakistocracy (government by the worst persons; a form of government in which the worst persons are in power) for all of them.
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He pardons a Democrat? Tried to sell Obama's seat. Oh, now I get it.
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Just the warm-up for the main event -- Stone, FlynnnManafort and eventually, Trump Himself. He wants us to be softened up before that event. Mueller failed so big in refusing to charge him....
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Mueller the most inept though well meaning public servant in recent memory. What a useless undertaking and presentation. And he keeps quiet
Please ask the 52 Republican Senators who acquitted Trump in the Senate impeachment trial what they think he learned from their vote.
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@Pat Choate
.....or what they think they learned.
10:10 EST, 2/19
He’s getting the band back together!
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What do the folks in Middle America and the South think about Trump's pardoning and commuting the sentences of these people? Some were richer than others but, from Milken to the woman running a drug dealers highway, they all got where they were by criminal acts. Their crimes are labelled non-violent, but that doesn't mean they didn't damage the lives of a lot of people.
Trump will be in Las Vegas during the upcoming debates to whip up his followers with as much hatred as possible. Is this the man you want for president?
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Yes because ironically he is the only person able to disrupt establishment corporate control of this country.
That the establishment is so anti Sanders proves my point though despite Sanders’ rhetoric he cannot effectively demolish the friendly fascism of corporate- government establishment rule. Only Trump will, though that is not his intention but rather an unintended consequence. Soon the Republican Party will be history. And the corrupt DNC as well.
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I would like to commend Trump for showing empathy and compassion for incarcerated people. I am just wondering if he has some left over for imprisoned Latino/Latina children separated from their families without proper record keeping and locked up without trial.
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@Bob Guthrie
Anyone being kept by Oz on one of your remote islands against their will?
@EGD
I disagree with my government on that point. Just because far right Scomo advocates that does not reflect on me at all. Trump and Morrison are friends- I oppose both of them.
I am not going to support Morrison or Australian rightists on that point or any point actually.
At least they know who the parents of any kids are and where they are.
I have often said in NYT forums that Americans are much better about immigration than Australians are. I have always been highly critical of Australian xenophobia and ethnocentrism.
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@Bob Guthrie
What about all those who have been proven innocent who are still in prison, some for decades.
https://www.innocenceproject.org/
https://eji.org/
I hate to agree with Don on anything but Blago served enough time for his crimes. As for the others I don't know and don't care. Don will pardon himself at some point.
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America is now a land of White Collar Criminals protected by the State, more specifically the President. It is a lot of liars, fraudsters, corrupt men and outright thugs that have money and political clout or connections that rule the US today. It won't continue this way. It can't! The good decent smart people of America are going to revolt. Possibly mega revolution is coming!
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Oooh, how I would swoon back in the '80s over that cute Ivan Boesky! Think Trump will spring Martin Shkreli? Any Gambinos in the mix? Freud was right: civilization is the thinnest veneer.
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Of course, stupid and lawless. That's a given and what else can we expect. And certainly there is more to come, whether it be Manfort and Stone, or others. But, I wager that Trumpian arrogance could backfire in the end, elections aside. How so? Because by his disgraceful misuse of his authority to pardon and commute, not just in one case but in many, he is giving the judicial system a huge signal that nothing the courts can do will stand in his way. The Stone sentencing this week won't stand. That's clear. But beyond, Trump is courting a constitutional confrontation. He knows well that his personal liability (and reelection) is on the line in any of the several serious cases now pending, including, especially, the tax return cases. By this action, Trump is telling the various courts that he will not obey, confident that his misguided troops will support him whatever he might do. That's the bet and that's the challenge. My instinct (and hope) is that the judicial system will accept the challenge, precipitating a true constitutional crisis. If the Republicans in the Senate felt put on the spot during the impeachment trial, they haven't seen anything yet. Will McConnell dump Trump and turn to Pence? Let's see how this unfolds.
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America is now a land of White Collar Criminals protected by the State, more specifically the President. It is a lot of liars, fraudsters, corrupt men and outright thugs that have money and political clout or connections that rule the US today. It won't continue this way. It can't! The good decent smart people of America are going to revolt. Possibly real revolution is coming!
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@ExhaustedFightingForJusticeEveryDay
It has been that way for a long time, just not as in-your-face as it is now.
Maybe the President is just trying to help cut Federal spending by getting more people released from prison. Ever think of that? Yeah, that’s the ticket.
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Three years into his presidency and Trump has just now started thinking about rebuilding his cabinet.
Great.
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The common thread connecting all of these felons is that they betrayed the public trust.
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Senate Republicans must be proud. They have underwritten these pardons. They own them and are responsible fr pardoning the man who betrayed the public trust to sell a senate seat and the other grifters Trump relates to so well.
None of those senators, save McConnell & Romney, will be remebered for anything except their aid and cover given to a proudly corrupt, despotic leader. McConnell will be remembered for showing how one person acting in bad faith can destroy our Republic. Romney will be remembered as an honorable man and as such, like Vindman, a target of disdain for all those lesser men and a few unethical women.
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Susan Collins will be remembered.
What people have to remember is that trump isn't immediately releasing Rod Blogevich
@Smith
And that matters because.....??????
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He’s been already out.
While I'm sure I can't pay whatever Milikan paid for hi pardon does anyone know how much I would need to pay Trump to get out of a speeding ticket?
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Guess Susan Collins was right. Trump has learned his lesson.
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No surprise that Trump's former attorney, Michael D. Cohen, will have to wait to be pardoned by a Democrat.
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By the time this is over, the only pardon left to grant will be his hairdresser's.
Because "only his hairdresser knows."
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Recommendations eh?! And I suppose the next batch of pardon 'recommendations' will come from Blagojevich, Milken, DeBartolo and Kerik.
What then of the fate of the non-famous people who deserve consideration. How will their 'recommendations' reach your Mr. Trump?
But don't be outraged folks, save that for the tricks up his sleeve as a lame duck next term...
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“I don’t know him. He seems like a nice guy. I’m not getting involved in the Stone or Manafort case.”
Trump lies like others breath.
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Among many other corrupt things, this is a way to keep the press and the attention on our king, rather than on the democratic candidates trying to make their way through this morass to some kind of higher ground where they can talk about how they would govern. It is almost impossible for many candidate to get time and attention...I am thinking of Elizabeth Warren, who will make the best governing president. If she can make it through to the nomination and is allowed by the moderators to squash Trump in the debates with her intelligence and wit. Good luck to her tomorrow.
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I could not agree more with your first sentence. The President, who has no coherent agenda, now works only to keep his stale reality show on the air. His cabinet is full of ambitious backstabbers (Pompeo, Barr) and a whole circus of incompetent clowns (Perry, Carson, Devos). Democrats in the House despise him and Republicans in the Senate hold their noses and quietly pray that he won't do something they will be asked to justify. This so-called foreign policy is a shambles for which he is rightly dismissed as a laughingstock by much of the world. The country must rise up in November and tell him, "You're fired!"
In Trump’s mind, he is the dictator.
I don’t think most people realize how serious this is.
The Republicans hold many key positions in the government, and it sure seems that they will not abide by the Constitution any more.
It’s serious.
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Apparently, the latest news is that next week Trump will pardon Charles Manson, several catholic priests, Al Capone, Bernie Madoff, Ollie North, and any police officer convicted of a felony (so long as they’re registered Republicans).
Pompeo has declared that any politician or lobbyist with a criminal record, or those that may have criminal records in the future, will be pardoned. The Congress is outraged, but Senate Republicans have said the Founding Fathers probably intended for the President to have the freedom to do this. Senator McConnell refused to allow any debate.
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Now all The People Who Matter can see more clearly why they should be generous with their contributions to their Friend: he can also give them personal attention.
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Maybe setting up a little quid pro quo for when he's no longer protected from criminal prosecution?
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Those who were pardoned or had sentences commuted may express their gratitude by making a charitable donations to the new Trump family Clean Slate Foundation; c/o Discreet Bank of Geneva, Switzerland. Suggested donation $1 million.
/s
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Trump loses a small slice of his support every time he does something like this.
His base loves this, but there's not enough of them to get him reelected.
Trump is personally slicing away some of his supporters and has already sliced away too many of them to get reelected.
It must be okay with Trump to trade pardons for his cronies, family, and friends in exchange for losing the election in November.
4
For Trump, corruption -- using your political office for personal monetary gain, fraud of the various kinds exemplified here -- is not a crime. If there is anyone out there who thinks Trump was really concerned about corruption in Ukraine, this should add to the evidence that he thinks corruption is just fine!
8
"Look, they've been treated VERY UNFAIRLY".
6
Is it possible that this could be the breaking point as surely every single Republican has at least one felon they would like pardoned? How will their egos tolerate the fact that favored felons of some people were selected while their own were not? How will they deal with the pressure on them to beg for yet another pardon to be issued by The Almighty Occupant?
I am not suggesting that Democrats don’t also have felons on their personal wish lists for pardons but they have zero chance for now.
2
Fox host Maria Bartiromo also advocated for Michael Milken. Another example why many of the business reporters like her but particularly those on Fox offer up dubious financial advice, push crank economic theories and tout the worst behaving CEO’s.
9
He's laying the groundwork for someone in this world or the next pardoning him when he sinks beneath the weight of his crimes.
3
He only cares about crooks and schemers. The only ones he can identify with.
5
They'll probably all be given spots in his administration
4
Presidential Projection: Be Best at Being the Worst
12
Trump is a white collar criminal, why shouldn't he stick up for his own?
8
I am shocked Trump did not pardon the Houston Astros! I guess he did not leave all Stones unturned.
5
Makes sense: he's the anti-corruption president.
2
Presidents usually issue pardons during the lame duck period of their final term in office.
I guess Mr. Trump is admitting that he is already a lame duck.
3
Thank Susan Collins!
12
For further illumination, please google "We're Living in a Golden Age of White Collar Crime."
A truly depressing account of how the 1% are ransacking our country.
Trump is their shameless ringleader.
8
For the love of all that is holy, please let this be the opening move in his resignation.
2
I am just sick.....trump will never be stopped until the voters remove him from office.
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@Emma Exactly...hence you can put all your dictator fears to rest. Elections are the way we deal with people like this. But you better choose your candidate wisely.
Trump isn’t a president; he’s a crime boss masquerading as a president.
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