JUST IN: President Trump has announced 26 new pardons, including ones for longtime ally Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner's father, Charles https://t.co/y3qx4c3wGo
— CNN (@CNN) December 24, 2020
… The pardons extend Trump’s streak of wielding his clemency powers for criminals who are loyalists, well-connected or adjacent to his family. While all presidents issue controversial pardons at the end of their terms, Trump appears to be moving at a faster pace than his predecessors, demonstrating little inhibition at rewarding his friends and allies using one of the most unrestricted powers of his office.
The pardons of Manafort and Stone reward two of the most high-profile and widely condemned former advisers of the President, both of whom were indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, went to trial and were convicted by juries of multiple crimes…
Charles Kushner, meanwhile, had been prosecuted by then-US Attorney for New Jersey Chris Christie in the early 2000s for tax evasion, witness tampering and illegal campaign contributions.
He eventually pleaded guilty to 16 counts of tax evasion, one count of retaliating against a federal witness — his brother-in-law — and another count of lying to the Federal Election Commission…
Beyond the high-profile pardons, Trump also pardoned more than 20 other individuals, including those who had pleaded guilty to various cyber crimes, firearm possession and mail fraud. He also commuted the sentences of three others…
But not, yet, Silk Road’s Ross Ulbricht, marketplace disrupter.
The origin story of Ross Ulbricht is no different to any story in Silicon Valley. It’s that of a young, smart, well-educated man, who grew up in an upper-middle-class suburb and had an idea that would change the world. Other men like him started services like Uber to disrupt the taxi business, Airbnb to disrupt hotels, or Yelp to disrupt the restaurant industry. Ulbricht chose to disrupt the drug market—illegal drugs. Ulbricht’s start-up, which he called the Silk Road, matched drug buyers and drug dealers, who shipped the product right to your door as if it was a box of tissues or a new book, and like Amazon, he took a small commission. Unlike Travis Kalanick of Uber, or Brian Chesky of Airbnb, Ulbricht, who went by “the Dread Pirate Roberts” (a reference to The Princess Bride) as a secret sobriquet, was eventually caught in a public library in San Francisco and sentenced to spend the rest of his life in jail.
On Tuesday, the Daily Beast reported that Donald Trump was exploring pardoning Ulbricht, writing that Trump “has at times privately expressed some sympathy for Ulbricht’s situation and has been considering his name, among others, for his next round of commutations and pardons.” …
And then there’s the other members of the Intellectual Dork Web’s Holy Trinity…
Snowden working the proper angles in attempt to get President Trump’s attention https://t.co/afl4t2SuvK pic.twitter.com/AiMIZdpOfm
— Michael B. Kelley (@MichaelBKelley) December 14, 2020
My personal opinion would be that Snowden is (now, if not always) a professional member of Russia’s spy services, who will never return to the United States barring a human assets swap. As for Assange, his motivations seem to be a mystery even to himself; he’s useful as a rhetorical bludgeon, but would be extremely risky for his defenders were he ever released from custody. But then, I am in no way a professional at information warfare — who knows what “inspiration” Trump will achieve by January 19th?
craigie
Vintage Trump – just do so many terrible things that it’s impossible to generate any lasting criticism of any one of them. And of course, not a word from the GOP about any of this.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich and Rich’s ex gave money to the Clinton Library…Both Sides!
HumboldtBlue
There are a lot of Santa stories out there.
None more Catholic than this one.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@HumboldtBlue: Dijon, eh? You know who likes fancy mustard like Dijon mustard, OBAMA! See, Both Sides!
Jesse
Another aspect of the presidency that deserves serious review: the power to pardon. This is just bananapants stuff going on here. Why should we tolerate pardons for these kinds of people?
Ruckus
I think this is vindictive trump. We didn’t reelect his dumb ass so he’s going to show us.
Never attribute to trump anything more than the simplest answer to anything.
lgerard
I don’t get the Ulbricht thing. He is no misguided libertarian tech kid, he is an amoral criminal. Aside from profiting form selling drugs and other illegal items, he clearly engaged in several murder-for-hire plots.
He is the most contemptible of the three, although perhaps not by much
Splitting Image
Every person Trump pardons should be referred to for the rest of their lives as “pardoned by Donald Trump along with a bunch of other crooks”.
Mary G
Kevin Drum is taking credit for this one:
Drum does have a point; Twitler’s pardons only include 15% females. Ladies are nasty and don’t deserve his attention, I guess.
DMcK
Anyone else agree that Presidential pardons should be done away with? Even when this weirdly monarchical privilege isn’t being flagrantly abused as it is now, it’s always a surefire magnet for accusations of corruption, or at least of a lofty contempt for proper jurisprudence. Seems more trouble than it’s worth.
ETA: And I see above that Jesse does.
Jesse
@DMcK: Hear hear.
I believe Obama used the power of pardon to exonerate several (IIRC) people behind bars for minor drug crimes. That seems to me to be a quasi-legitimate use of the power. We would need to accept the possibility that that kind of thing would become impossible if we were to entirely do away with pardons.
DMcK
@Jesse: If the absolute best-case scenario is a selective quick fix for a problem that is systematically widespread and ongoing, it ain’t worth it.
Tony Jay
Speaking of shady acts of criminal depravity getting rewarded, Flobalob Johnson looks set to announce a Christmas Miracle later today. He’s only gone and personally agreed a trade and security deal with the E.U. that guarantees Britain’s sovereign magnificence, and even though naysayers will claim it looks a lot like he’s just rolled over and accepted whatever terms the E.U. deigned to toss him (again) we should ignore that and concentrate on the feel-good triumph of Faith, Freedom and Fuck-Off Darkies.
No one could possibly have predicted, etc.
hitchhiker
Yo, friends.
I saw Rush trending over on twitter and hoped for the obituary, but it was just a bunch of dittoheads slobbering over what they think was his final sign off today.
So we still have that to look forward to, I guess.
Yes, I loathe him for all the damage he’s done. Remember this?
Redshift
Trump thought he was going to be King of America and would get to do whatever he wanted. Instead he got people telling him he couldn’t do things, it he had to do then the right way.
I’m convinced he started doing tariffs because it was something he could just do, and to she extent the same with pardons. There are some that benefit him personally, but a lot seem to be “ha ha you can’t stop me!”
opiejeanne
Ghislane Maxwell.
Someone suggested that she may get pardoned by Trump before he leaves office.
sab
@DMcK: 44 presidents handled the pardon power acceptably and you want to throw it out because of abuses by the 45th? Maybe
fixabolish the electoral college so that next time we don’t elect a madman.OGLiberal
Charlie fucking Kushner. He pardoned Charlie fucking Kushner. Fuck everybody who supports this guy. Trumpers are horrible people. And I know and grew up with a lot of them. Fuck them.
Bruuuuce
@sab:
I’ll accept “fix” in the veterinary sense. (NPVIC!)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Bruuuuce:
I find your solution acceptable.
DMcK
@sab: “Acceptably” is in the eye of the beholder, e.g. Ford/Nixon, or Clinton’s pardonees (to take the view of his detractors, who may have had a point in some cases [working from creaky memory, so don’t ask for specific examples]). Point being, it’s a strangely monarchical privilege that shouldn’t rest in the hands of the leader of a nation otherwise bound to the processes of lawful jurisprudence, IMHO. I’ve felt this way for awhile before Trump arose from the muck.
ETA: And it’s always all-too-easy bait for the media. A noisy distraction; a game-show.
Geminid
@sab: Electing the President by popular vote might make it more likely that we elect a madman. There could be billionaire independent candidates, fascist demagogues backed by trillionaire syndicates of billionaires. A runoff, like the French have for their president, would help some.
Brachiator
@HumboldtBlue:
The Dijon Santa burning was just mentioned on the most recent episode of the British game show QI. The show episode, “QI:Rejoice” also mentioned other holiday prohibitions, such as the Puritans outlawing Christmas entirely.
Of course, I love the idea of the Catholic Church getting rid of Santa because he was too “pagan.”
Cause yeah, that Baby Jesus thing really happened.
Also learned that the Immaculate Conception refers to Mary having been born without the blot of Original Sin. Nothing to do with a virgin birth.
sab
@Geminid: Hasn’t been the experience of my lifetime.
Geminid
@sab: Well, I added to my comment. I’m not saying abolishing the Electoral College is a bad idea in itself. But the dynamic you have seen so far in your lifetime will be very different, and it’s good to examine the unintended consequences of this reform. We will at least need a runoff.
Brachiator
@Tony Jay:
Someone suggested that Johnson even managed to screw this up. If a BREXIT deal is done by Christmas Eve, it will happen too late to mentioned in the next day’s newspapers because, Christmas.
But folks here in the US complain about the media. I ain’t no Brit, but have tried to follow the BREXIT story, and have been amazed that the most popular British newspapers have just outright lied shamelessly about BREXIT. And hordes of pro-BREXIT supporters willingly soak up any lie that the Conservative Party served up.
And then there is that special piece of crap, Nigel Farage, who pops up like a recurring case of herpes, blasting any result he does not like, but which he previously championed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Geminid:
How is the Electoral College making this any better?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@DMcK: So should we also remove the pardon power from state governors as well? Some enjoy an absolute power to pardon as well.
Brachiator
@DMcK:
The power of pardon recognizes the fact that justice and the law are not always the same thing.
Even state governors can offer clemency.
You could, I guess, make it a more bureaucratic process, but that would not really change the nature of pardon.
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
Look at you, all worldly.
Brachiator
@HumboldtBlue:
The Dijon Santa burning was just mentioned on the most recent episode of the British game show QI.
You can go almost anywhere via the Internets.
And QI has been a great distraction from the pandemic and from Trump.
JoyceH
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Clinton was also being lobbied by Israel to pardon Rich, and he was trying (and failing in the end) to get a Middle East peace deal before he left office, so it wasn’t entirely a payoff to a rich donor.
HumboldtBlue
@Brachiator:
QI and 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown are stone-cold favorites along with WILTY.
Frankensteinbeck
Trump is depressed, helpless, and angry. Pardons have people crawling to him to kiss his ring. As always, he’s a creature of id. Right now, the begging is probably the only pleasure he has.
Geminid
@?BillinGlendaleCA: The first sentence of my comment is shallow standing alone, but I fatfingered it in before referencing the reasons electing a president by popular vote could result in a bad outcome. If one applies this reform to past experience, it seems to ensure a Democratic win always (although if not for voter suppression in Ohio, John Kerry could well have been a popular vote minority, Electoral College majority President in 2004). But moving to election by popular vote will totally transform the electoral dynamic, far beyond merely enhancing Democratic power. There will be multiple viable “third” parties, celebrity candidates, and as I said, well financed demagogues. It won’t be like Bush v. Gore, or trump v. Clinton. Like I said, this is not necessarily a definitive argument against abolishing the Electoral College, but a recognition of the inevitable consequences of this reform. But as long as there is a runoff, like in France, I would not worry too much.
Origuy
@Brachiator: I just finished watching that episode myself. I’ve been a fan of QI for a long time.
They also mentioned the attempts by the USSR to abolish Santa Clause and his various avatars (Father Christmas, Kris Kringle, etc.)
ETA I also like watching Mock the Week. I don’t get all of the UK references, but I do get a lot of them.
Tony Jay
@Brachiator:
That’s how they roll. Announce a marvellous ‘victory’ at the very last second and shove it through while everyone is distracted, relying on a compliant national media and the nodding-dogs at the BBC to flood the zone with pre-scripted fluff. As ever, this isn’t a Government doing policy, it’s a PR operation navigating a brand through a scandal.
And yes, our News Media is utterly toxic with no redeeming features. One of the main reasons that the Greatest Monster in British History achieved that status was because he supported breaking up the Media monopolies and establishing basic standards for what the Press can and cannot get away with under colour of ‘journalism’. That simply could not be allowed to happen.
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
He is also spiteful, and means to undermine the Biden admimistration any way he can.
Brachiator
@Origuy:
Yep. Same here. And sometimes I get a more insightful view of politics than from watching a UK news program.
@HumboldtBlue:
Yep. Have run across these more recently, but am already a big fan of David Mitchell and Lee Mack.
patrick II
We have known these pardons were coming for four years. We should have a better plan than shock and outrage. May there is and we don’t know it yet. But I have posted this before, all rights in the constitution are bound by other rights. Even with the clearly stated right of free speech, you can’t yell “fire!” in a crowded theatre. The right to life of the theatre attendees overrides. Even with the clearly stated right of assembly you can’t have public assembly right now of more than 10 people in New York, the safety of the people in a COVID pandemic overrides. And you can’t have a president pardon himself for crimes, nor his co-conspirators who conspire with him without conflicting with the president’s oath to uphold the laws, the very nature of our democracy. People think a pardon, which is simply stated in the constitution, is inviolable, but I think not, It has not been tested in court and no one knows. And if the right to our country to exist doesn’t override the president’s crime of aiding the soft invasion of another country, then a precedent has been sent that will certainly cause the downfall of the country. Every future Trump or Mussolini will try to make it to that one sweet spot in America where he will be held above the law, and god bless us all when that happens unless we wake up and say it can’t.
JMG
Pardons are step one. Ordering Pence not to recognize Congress’s counting of the electors is step two. Martial law declaration (which may not be heeded by the military) is step three. All in the next month.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@JMG: The US would become a much smaller and poorer country. Ain’t gonna happen.
Baud
@JMG:
Step 4 is shunning people who keep making dystopian predictions that don’t come true.
FWIW, Pence has a ministerial job. It has not effect on Biden’s election.
Frankensteinbeck
@JMG:
Pence does not decide if electors are counted. He’s an announcer. That’s it.
montanareddog
@patrick II:
No way that the Supreme Court will invalidate these pardons – I doubt they would invalidate a self-pardon as there is nothing in the text to rule it out. The remedy for a lawless president is, as always, impeachment. And the new House should impeach him again in the first two weeks after having been seated. Pardoning your co-conspirators to protect yourself and reward their non-co-operation is a high crime in my book.
DMcK
@Brachiator: Sure, State governors can grant clemency, commute sentences, etc., and it is usually well-intentioned, or at least meant to be perceived as such. The systemic problems of lopsided sentencing guidelines (injustice), criminalization of non-violent offenses (bad law), and the like still remain — publicized, perhaps, but materially unaddressed. And then we have Trump’s pardonpalooza, which serves whatever entity claims the title of the antithesis of both Law and Justice.
ETA: on the Presidential level, I’ve never seen it as anything other than virtue-signaling at best, and quid-pro-quo at worst…until Trump, which is just pure motherfuckery.
ETA: I’m, like, 5 beers in, so forgive any brusqueness or lack of clarity!
Geminid
@patrick II: I think you live in the Tidewater Va. 2nd Congressional District. What do you think of your Congresswoman, Elaine Luria? I was very relieved when she won reelection. It was closer than I thought it would be.
Geminid
@Geminid: Speaking of close elections, Democratic Congressman Anthony Brindisi was down 19 votes in the NY 22nd race after a final first count. Oswego judge Del Conte ordered a district wide recount and heard arguments on disputed ballots this week. But Oneida County was late with it’s recount, NY courts recess from Christmas to New Years, and there won’t be a result for two weeks. Judge Del Conte ordered the recount after hearing of multiple canvassing problems, sensibly saying, it’s more important that we get this right than that we get this done right now. Brindisi flipped the seat in 2018, beating Claudia Tenney who now leads their rematch. He is a member of the Blue Dog Caucus. Not that it matters to me.
trnc
I thought this was snark at first because I missed “independent.” The EC literally gave us a billionaire fascist demagogue backed by Russian and American oligarchs in 2016, and you could argue the same for 2000 without the Russian part. It’s always good to beware of unintended consequences, but it’s hard to worry about a change handing us a result we’ve already seen.
Admittedly, I don’t understand how an independent suddenly gains traction without the EC in your scenario.
Warblewarble
If only Hitler had pardoned his henchmen,there could have been no Nuremberg trials. (snark)
rikyrah
It’s the pardons that don’t fit that reporters should investigate. The ones that don’t fit go looking for the cleared check.??
rikyrah
@lgerard:
Check the bank account transfer?
trnc
True, but it explicitly states pardons are for offenses. What federal offense will DT admit to while pardoning himself? He doesn’t exactly have a history of admitting to wrongdoing. Even assuming he does specify something, I wonder if he would leave out some of the crimes.
What effect do you believe impeachment will have with 2 weeks to go? Even if we get to 50 in the senate, McConnell is still effectively the majority leader with the power to schedule senate votes while Pence is VP. Do you really believe he’ll schedule a vote before Jan 20? Meanwhile, dems will be subject to the ridicule of going through that charade right out of the gate. Not a good look.
Geminid
@trnc: Two dominant parties currently have built membership and structure across 50 states. A nationwide popular vote would allow a well financed independent to appeal directly to voters. I might think a Andrew Yang independent bid in 2032 a joke. But I won’t be laughing when he appears at his campaign launch flanked by Campaign Co-Chairmen Peter Thiel and Mark Zuckerburg.
A Democrat ticket of Stacey Abrams and Katie Porter could still beat Yang. Maybe. As long as Taylor Swift isn’t in the race.
But like I said, as long as there is a runoff, it can’t be but so bad. But it won’t be at all like Presidential elections as we know them now.
montanareddog
@trnc:
I agree that there is no chance of the shitgibbon being convicted, and of McConnell even scheduling a vote. And you may be right that it will be spun as not a good look by Republicans and the MSM. But I think that the Dems will be laying down a marker that corrupt pardons are an impeachable offense. YMMV.
satby
@trnc: Republicans were able to get their revenge for Nixon’s impeachment by basically destroying it as a check on an unlawful president. First by the flagrantly political impeachment of Clinton and then by refusing to even consider evidence in Trump’s impeachment, casting it all as a political witch hunt in spite of the evidence of crime. Impeachment will be forever tainted as a method to remove a criminal president now.
pluky
@lgerard: my guess is someone in his family made a significant “contribution” to some Trump related entity.
Geminid
@pluky: Or maybe Ulbricht has a Mar-a-Largo middleman, waiting for trump’s arrival to pitch a deal and work out price, broker’s fee, etc. There could be several middlemen. Maybe a Cayman Islands banker or two will fly in for the New Year’s celebrations.
burnspbesq
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Worth remembering that the high-powered DC lawyer who engineered the Marc Rich pardon was … Scooter Libby.
burnspbesq
@lgerard:
More contemptible than the guy who defrauded Medicare to the tune of a billion three? I dunno …
burnspbesq
@patrick II:
Don’t be silly. Unless and until there is an OLC opinion, no U.S. Attorney is going to empanel a grand jury to indict anybody on charges that are arguably within the scope of a Presidential pardon. Why put your career at risk?
Amir Khalid
@Frankensteinbeck:
Pence is but a placeholder. Trump has no real use for him. That he will be a mere announcer on 6th January won’t stop Trump accusing him of betrayal if Trump is so inclined.
Skepticat
Some of these issues might be overcome by ranked-choice voting, but having seen how difficult it was to get in Maine, I don’t hold out much hope for that possibility.
WaterGirl
@Jesse: I was just thinking last night that Biden should commute the sentences of everyone who is in prison for non-violent, non-dealing marijuana crimes.
WaterGirl
@hitchhiker: Oh my god, what a fucking pig. Imagine being a person, possibly signing off on your last radio show ever, thinking about how you want to be remembered, and that is what you say.
Un-fucking-believable.
Other MJS
Subpoena fodder.
sab
How technical are pardons? The remaining Trump people on board seem like they would have trouble addressing an envelope. Any chance some of these guys will have pardons that don’t actually work?
bluefish
I love it when Trump and his multitude of minions … confess! Let’s not elect another moron like this one again anytime soon. Not that one did — just an over all notion. Astonishing how much damage this vile crew did to the USA. Karma is a stitch.
patrick Ii
I am in Virginia Beach. I like Luria a lot. Especially compared to Scott Taylor.
Just Chuck
@WaterGirl: The Fluke comments were several years ago. But I’m sure he came up with something equally vile for his swan song.
patrick Ii
@burnspbesq:
Having a professional criminal attack your country and stand aside and throw your hands up in the air is silly. Understanding that goal of the constitution is to have a lawful democracy and that what has happened conflicts with the very purpose of the constitution and must be remedied if our democracy is to survive is not.
Searcher
Does Trump know his term doesn’t end at the end of the calendar year?
VOR
I don’t know who coined it (Josh Marshall, perhaps) but there is a maxim called Trump’s Razor: The stupidest possible explanation consistent with the facts is most likely correct.
Warblewarble
QUESTION FOR THE LEGAL EGGHEADS,HAS IT EVER BEEN TESTED WHETHER AN IMPEACHED PRESIDENT ACTUALLY HAS PARDON POWERS?
brantl
@Warblewarble: Successfully impeached ones don’t. Unsuccessfully impeached ones have the same powers any president has…..
Geminid
@Skepticat: Ranked choice voting has the advantage of a quick outcome. But a runoff, as is done in French Presidential elections, would be better. In a race with 4 or 5 serious contenders, choosing between the top two vote getters gives voters a chance to really grasp the issues at stake. While less convenient than ranked choice, a runoff in such an important race is justified.
Some say that outcomes in 2016 and 2000 were so bad, how could an outcome in a Popular Vote system be any worse? Can you imagine a fascist demagogue who, unlike trump, is not lazy, and hampered by narcissism, and is only forty five years old? I can.