The media is currently clutching its pearls over President Joe Biden’s decision to pardon his son, Hunter, saying President-elect Donald Trump will use Biden’s act of clemency to justify bad pardons once he takes office again.
Politico declared Biden’s pardon “a rich gift to those who want to blow up the justice system as we know it,” while The New York Times said Biden’s act “will inevitably muddy the political waters as Mr. Trump prepares to take office with plans to use the Justice Department and F.B.I. to pursue ‘retribution’ against his political adversaries.”
Indeed, Trump is already trying to use Biden’s pardon as an excuse to make his own controversial pardons when he returns to the White House on Jan. 20.
“Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday night, suggesting he’ll use the Hunter Biden pardon to justify releasing hundreds of people who broke into the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, to try to stop the certification of Biden’s victory. (Trump campaigned on pardoning Jan. 6 insurrectionists, so he’s already justified the decision in his mind.)
But Trump didn’t need Biden’s pardon to excuse his inevitably awful future pardons.
Trump already has a history of abusing his clemency power, pardoning unrepentant felons simply because they were his supporters, allies, or family members.
In fact, Trump even contemplated giving himself and his family a blanket pardon before he left the White House kicking and screaming in January 2021—something he ultimately decided against.
Here’s an exhaustive list of the terrible pardons Trump granted during his first term in office:
Joe Arpaio
In 2017, Trump issued his first full and unconditional pardon to former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio—the vile racist who was found guilty of criminal contempt after he continued to racially profile Latinos despite a court order to stop the practice.
Arpaio never took responsibility nor apologized for his crime, which is traditionally a condition to obtain a presidential pardon.
Republicans from Arizona, where Arpaio carried out his reign of terror, slammed Trump’s decision.
“Mr. Arpaio was found guilty of criminal contempt for continuing to illegally profile Latinos living in Arizona based on their perceived immigration status in violation of a judge’s orders. The President has the authority to make this pardon, but doing so at this time undermines his claim for the respect of rule of law as Mr. Arpaio has shown no remorse for his actions,” the late Arizona Republican Sen. John McCain said at the time.
Scooter Libby
In 2018, Trump pardoned Libby, former Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff who was convicted in 2007 of perjury and obstruction of justice in an investigation into who leaked the identity of CIA officer Valerie Plame.
The pardon was an attempt by Trump to issue a warning to special counsel Robert Mueller and then-FBI director James Comey, who were probing his alleged ties to Russian election interference in 2016. Libby was convicted by a special counsel who Comey had tasked with investigating the leak.
“On the day the president wrongly attacks Comey for being a ‘leaker and liar’ he considers pardoning a convicted leaker and liar, Scooter Libby. This is the president’s way of sending a message to those implicated in the Russia investigation: You have my back and I’ll have yours,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said at the time.
Dinesh D’Souza
A little more than a month later, Trump pardoned right-wing conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza, who pleaded guilty to making illegal straw donations to a Republican Senate candidate in New York who was running against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.
D’Souza went on to help Trump gin up fake evidence to back up Trump’s lies that he won the 2020 election. On Sunday, D’Souza admitted that the evidence—which he detailed in a film called “2000 Mules” that Trump and his allies used to try to overturn the election—was made up.
Clint Lorance and Matthew Golsteyn
1st Lt. Clint Lorance and Maj. Mathew Golsteyn were convicted of murder or were facing murder charges, respectively, for actions they took while serving in Afghanistan.
Lorance was sentenced to 19 years in prison for killing two men when he opened fire on unarmed Afghan civilians in 2012. And Golsteyn was facing charges after he admitted to executing an unarmed Afghan man in 2010.
Pete Hegseth, the Fox News host and alleged rapist who Trump nominated to serve as secretary of Defense, helped convince Trump to pardon the men.
Bernie Kerik
Trump pardoned former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, who had served three years in prison for tax fraud and lying to federal officials.
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, a Trump ally, helped convince Trump to pardon Kerik.
Michael Flynn
After losing his bid for reelection in 2020, Trump pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as part of the probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump had previously intervened in Flynn’s case, asking Comey in 2017 to stop probing Flynn’s possible involvement in the Russian scheme, which Trump had called a hoax. Comey refused.
Trump’s pardon was lambasted by Democrats, including then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who said the move was “an act of grave corruption and a brazen abuse of power.”
George Papadopoulos
About a month later, in December 2020, Trump went on to pardon former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, who triggered the federal probe into the Trump campaign’s alleged collusion with Russia to meddle in the 2016 campaign.
Papadopoulos went on to serve 12 days in prison for lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.
Alex van der Zwaan
That same day, Trump also pardoned Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who also pleaded guilty to lying to special counsel Mueller’s investigators.
Van der Zwaan’s conviction was the first secured by Mueller’s team, and he ultimately was the only person to ever serve jail time due to the probe. Van der Zwaan was ultimately deported in 2018.
Three Republican former members of Congress
Trump also pardoned two former Republican members of Congress. Reps. Chris Collins of New York and Duncan Hunter of California were his earliest congressional supporters in his 2016 bid for president. And he commuted the sentence of a third, former Rep. Steve Stockman of Texas.
At the time of his pardon, Collins was serving prison time for insider trading. Hunter had pleaded guilty to stealing campaign funds for personal benefit, while Stockman was serving 10 years in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for charities in order to pay for personal expenses and his campaign.
Blackwater war criminals Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard
The four Blackwater contractors Trump granted pardons to were convicted of carrying out a 2007 massacre of 14 innocent civilians in Iraq.
The United Nations Human Rights office slammed the pardon.
“These four individuals were given sentences ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment, including on charges of first-degree murder,” U.N. spokesperson Marta Hurtado said in a statement. “Pardoning them contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future.”
Roger Stone
Trump commuted the sentence of ally and right-wing conspiracy theorist Roger Stone, who had been found guilty of obstructing a congressional investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Stone was sentenced to three years in prison, but he never served a day of that time as Trump commuted his sentence days before it was set to begin.
“With this commutation, Trump makes clear that there are two systems of justice in America: one for his criminal friends, and one for everyone else,” Schiff said in a statement after Trump commuted Stone’s sentence.
Paul Manafort
Trump pardoned his former campaign chairman, who had been sentenced to more than seven years in prison for a raft of financial crimes, including tax evasion on millions in income he earned as a political consultant in Ukraine. His crimes were uncovered during Mueller’s investigation.
Charles Kushner
Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to filing false tax returns, lying to the Federal Election Commission, and retaliating against a cooperating witness. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who prosecuted the case, said Kushner’s crimes were some of “the most loathsome, disgusting” crimes he ever prosecuted.
Kushner admitted to a scheme to both punish and intimidate his brother-in-law, who was a cooperating witness into a probe that Kushner made illegal campaign contributions. According to the Associated Press, “Kushner hired a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law, then arranged to have the encounter in a New Jersey motel room recorded with a hidden camera and the recording sent to his own sister, the man’s wife.”
Now, Trump nominated Kushner to serve as his ambassador to France during his upcoming second term.
Steve Bannon
Hours before his first term in office expired, Trump pardoned his loathsome former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who had been charged with defrauding people who donated money to a phony charity that was purportedly raising money to build the border wall Trump promised Mexico would pay for. Bannon had yet to face trial for the charges, so Trump preemptively pardoned him, sparing him of the legal jeopardy he faced.
Bannon ultimately did end up serving four months in prison for contempt of Congress, after he refused to comply with a subpoena from the House committee that was probing the Jan. 6 insurrection.
And Bannon now faces state charges for the “build the wall” scam, which Trump cannot pardon him for. The trial in that case is set to begin in February.
Elliott Broidy
Trump also pardoned GOP megadonor Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to serving as an unregistered foreign agent.
According to the Department of Justice, “Elliott Broidy sought to lobby the highest levels of the U.S. government to drop one of the largest fraud and money laundering prosecutions ever brought and to deport a critic of the Chinese Communist Party, all the while concealing the foreign interests whose bidding he was doing.”
Broidy helped raise millions for Trump and the Republican National Committee, where he later served as deputy finance chairman in 2017, after Trump took office. He later resigned from that role after reports surfaced that Broidy paid $1.6 million in hush money to a Playboy Playmate who claimed Broidy impregnated her.
Albert Pirro
In another last-minute move, Trump pardoned Albert Pirro—the ex-husband of Fox News host and Trump sycophant Jeanine Pirro.
In 2000, Pirro was sentenced to 29 months in prison for tax evasion and conspiracy charges.
Republished with permission from Daily Kos.
h/t Tengrain
