Pardon pardon pardon
In today’s round of disgusting pardons –
President Donald Trump on Wednesday evening 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.
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.
Appears to be? He either is or isn’t. It’s a matter of fact, not speculation. He’s already pardoned a lot more than normal, hasn’t he? And he has 27 days left.
Also make that “no inhibition,” not “little.”
Having a pardon from Trump should be regarded the same way as having Covid-19 or a generous helping of syphilis: grounds for compulsory confinement until definitely corrected and prior status restored. That could take quite a while in some cases.
Slightly out of date, but…
So, what’s he up to, 55 now? Compare:
Previously Bush had 200 and Clinton had 459. Source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_pardoned_or_granted_clemency_by_the_president_of_the_United_States
Trump doesn’t currently seem to be on track to break any records, but I suppose he could pardon 100,000 tomorrow.
Oh, duh, it says 26 new pardons, so he’s at least up to 71. Still not particularly high. But plenty of time left.
The notable thing is not the raw number of pardons, more the number of pardons going to people connected with himself. How many criminal allies did Obama pardon?
I’m curious about Obama’s 1,927 people: what sort of people were they? Not big contributors to his election funds, I suppose, but all the same.
Athel,
Obama’s pardons and commutations were mostly for non-violent drug offenders. Perhaps more importantly, he had a process in place that went through the Justice Department before it got to his desk.
See here for details.