pardons

President Donald Trump pardoned Thanksgiving turkeys Gobble and Waddle — joking he nearly named them after Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer — while also taking swipes at Joe Biden, stating last year’s turkey pardons were “invalid” because Biden used an autopen to sign them.

It’s sheer coincidence that I’m writing here on the same subject as my Los Angeles Times colleague Jonah Goldberg’s most recent column: The crying need to amend the Constitution to do something about the much-abused presidential pardon power, the only unchecked power that a president has.

The fact that both Goldberg, a right-of-center commentator, and I, center-left, would near-simultaneously choose to vent on this topic — to call, in effect, for a national uprising against this presidential prerogative despite the evident difficulty of amending the Constitution — is telling: It’s a reflection of Americans’ across-the-spectrum disgust with how modern presidents have perverted it for personal and political benefit, usually on their way out the door. (Goldberg makes the case to get rid of the pardon power altogether. I would give Congress a veto, so presidents still can right actual wrongs of the justice system, as the founders intended.)

Yes, “both sides” are culpable. And yet, Goldberg and I agree, one president has surpassed all others in the shamelessness of his pardons: Donald Trump. In just 10 months he’s built a track record sorrier than that of his first term, which is saying something, and elevated clemency reform to an imperative.

We can’t stop Trump before he pardons again. Nor, probably, would an amendment campaign succeed before (if?) he leaves office in January 2029. But Americans of all political stripes can at least join in getting the process rolling, if only to protect against future presidents’ abuses.

From his first day in office, when Trump granted clemency to nearly 1,600 rioters who beat cops and stormed the Capitol to overturn his 2020 defeat, already 20 times this year he’s either pardoned or commuted the prison sentences of additional scores of undeserving hacks, fellow election deniers, war criminals, donors, investors in Trump businesses and career criminals who just happen to support him. (Recidivism among Trump’s beneficiaries is proving a problem; among the new charges: child sex abuse.)

The clemency actions have come so fast and furious that they hardly register as the scandals that they are, especially as the news about them vies for attention with the many other outrages of Trump’s presidency.

“No MAGA left behind,” Trump pardon attorney “Eagle Ed” Martin brazenly posted in May and again this month in announcing preemptory pardons for former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and more than 75 other Republicans who were part of the fake-elector schemes to reverse Trump’s 2020 losses in battleground states, as well as other efforts after the 2020 election to keep him in power.

Those grants were followed last weekend by mercy for two more MAGA militants: Suzanne Kaye, a Florida woman sentenced to prison for threatening in video posts to “shoot their [expletive] a–” if FBI agents tried to question her about her involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection, and Daniel Edwin Wilson of Kentucky, who was among those pardoned for his crimes on Jan. 6 but later sentenced by a Trump-appointed district judge on gun charges related to an illegal cache of weaponry that agents found at his home.

To Trump, absolving his supporters as victims of a supposedly weaponized justice system in effect absolves him as well, and furthers his false narrative — his big lie — that the 2020 election was stolen from him. As Martin, the White House pardon attorney, wrote in this month’s passel of pardons: “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 Presidential Election.” The opposite is true.

Lo, Trump’s mercy knows no bounds — of propriety, that is. The president won’t even rule out a pardon for convicted child-trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, longtime procurer for, and participant with, Jeffrey Epstein in the sexploitation of young girls.

Even if Trump’s abuse of the pardon power isn’t unprecedented, its scale and shamelessness is. His Day One mass pardons for Jan. 6 participants set the tone. That action kept his 2024 campaign promise to “free the J-6 hostages,” but it broke an earlier, videotaped vow he’d made on Jan. 7, 2021, when anger at the Capitol attack was near-universal: “To those who broke the law, you will pay.” Hundreds did pay, convicted by juries and judges of both parties and sentenced to up to 22 years in prison. Until Trump got back in power.

Need evidence of how Trump’s pardons corrode the rule of law? Last December, weeks before he returned to the White House, yet another Jan. 6 participant, Philip Sean Grillo, was sentenced. The Reagan-appointed federal judge in the case, Royce Lamberth, admonished: “Nobody is being held hostage. … Every rioter is in the situation he or she is in because he or she broke the law, and for no other reason.” Grillo shouted back, as U.S. marshals led him off: “Trump’s gonna pardon me anyways.” He was right, of course.

Then there’s this: In September, after a Republican former Tennessee House speaker and his aide were sentenced in a fraud case, the government’s announcement quoted a senior FBI agent in Nashville calling the punishment “a wake-up call to other public officials who believe there are no consequences for betraying the public trust.” On Nov. 7, Trump pardoned both men.

Trump’s promiscuous use of his power has even spawned a niche business of Trump-connected lawyers peddling their influence to pardon-seekers willing to shell out tens of thousands of dollars to get out of jail not-so-free.

Consider the case of Changpeng Zhao, billionaire founder of the crypto exchange Binance, who served time in 2023 for facilitating money laundering, including for terrorist groups. Zhao didn’t just hire Trump-friendly lawyers. His company helped secure a $2-billion investment in the Trump family’s crypto startup. Last month, Trump pardoned Zhao. “I heard it was a Biden witch hunt,” he nonchalantly told CBS News’ “60 Minutes.”

Zhao’s success alone should be scandal enough to fuel a campaign to repeal or reform the pardon power. But there is so much more. And we surely haven’t seen the last.

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Nov. 15 (UPI) — President Donald Trump has issued second pardons to supporters who breached the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, this time on separate related offenses.

The clemancy for Dan Wilson and Suzanne Kaye were announced online on Saturday by Ed Martin, a longtime supporter of the Jan. 6 rioters who is the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.

They were signed Friday by Trump.

“Thank you: Post! Danny Wilson is now a free man. When I was DC’s U.S. Attorney, and now as U.S. Pardon Attorney, I advocated for this clemency, which the president granted Friday.@POTUSThank you,” Ed Martin posted on X with a copy of the pardon.”

In another post with the document, Martin wrote: “Thank you: POTUS! The Biden DOJ targeted Suzanne Kaye for social media posts-and she was sentenced to 18 months in federal lock up. President Trump is unwinding the damage done by Biden’s DOJ weaponization, so the healing can begin.”

In May 2024, Wilson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer and was sentenced to five years in prison.

But the Louisville, Ky., man was in prison for possession of a firearm by a prohibited person and possession of an unregistered firearm. He was sentenced in August 2024 to prison until 2028.

It stems from when his home was searched in June 2022 as part of the federal government’s investigation of the intrusion.

A White House official told Politico that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues.”

When Trump retook office on Jan. 20, he pardoned him along with clemency to about 1,500 Jan. 6 defendants, including pardons and commutations.

But Wilson had remained in prison on another conviction, along with a few other defendants for other federal crimes.

The Department of Justice at the time said “numerous firearms and ammunition” were recovered and forbidden because of previous felony convictions.

“For too long, my client has been held as a political prisoner by a government that criminalized dissent,” George Pallas, his attorney, said in a statement to CBS News. “President Trump’s pardon rights this wrong and sends a clear message that peaceful Americans will not be persecuted for their beliefs. Mr. Wilson is innocent, he has always been innocent, and this pardon proves it.”

Wilson had occasionally discussed bringing firearms to the Capitol, but ultimately arrived unarmed.

During the day, he posted messages and spoke to other members of his far-right groups, the Oath Keepers and Gray Ghost Partisan Rangers militia.

Initially, the Justice Department argued that Trump’s pardons did not extend to Wilson’s gun charges, but later changed its position. They received “further clarity on the intent of the Presidential Pardon.”

U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich, who oversaw Wilson’s case, criticized extending the pardon to cover offenses discovered in the course of the investigations. He was nominated by Trump.

Kaye, of Boca Raton, Fla., was sentenced two years ago to 18 months in prison for threatening to shoot FBI agents who had sought to question her about her involvement in the Capitol attack.

She denied that she had been at the Capitol that day, according to court records obtained by The New York Times. Before meeting FBI agent, she posted a series of videos online threatening the agents.

Jeremy Brown, also an Oath Keeper, was released from a seven-year sentence after his attorneys and the Justice Department claimed the pardon covered Brown’s unrelated conviction for illegally possessing classified information and grenades.

Elias Costianes also was released from jail after the Justice Department declined to fight the appeal of his conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

Edward Kelley was recently sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kill the officers and FBI agents who investigated his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack. Kelley had contended Trump’s pardon covered the conspiracy charge, but the Justice Department opposed him.

The Justice Department has opposed efforts by David Daniel after the FBI discovered child pornography on his computer during a Jan. 6-related search.

Suzanne Ellen Kaye was convicted for threatening to shoot FBI agents, and Daniel Edwin Wilson for conspiring to impede or injure police offers and illegal firearm possession.

United States President Donald Trump has issued two new pardons related to the investigation into the January 6, 2021 US Capitol insurrection.

White House officials said on Saturday that one pardon was given to a woman convicted of threatening to shoot FBI agents who were investigating a tip that she may have been at the US Capitol. Trump issued the second pardon for a defendant who had remained behind bars despite the sweeping grant of clemency for Capitol rioters because of a separate conviction for illegally possessing firearms.

These pardons are the latest example of Trump’s willingness to use his constitutional authority to help supporters who were scrutinised as part of the massive January 6 investigation that was conducted by the administration of former US President Joe Biden and that led to charges against more than 1,500 defendants.

With a stroke of his pen and within hours of being sworn in for his second term in January of this year, Trump upended the largest prosecution in the history of the US Department of Justice.

He freed from prison people caught on camera viciously attacking police as well as leaders of far-right groups convicted of orchestrating violent plots to stop the peaceful transfer of power after Trump’s 2020 election loss.

Suzanne Ellen Kaye, of Florida, was released last year after serving an 18-month sentence. After the FBI contacted her in 2021 about a tip indicating she may have been at the Capitol on January 6, she posted a video on social media citing her right under the US Constitution’s Second Amendment to carry a gun, and threatened to shoot agents if they came to her house.

Kaye testified at trial that she didn’t own any guns and didn’t intend to threaten the FBI, according to court papers. She told authorities she was not at the Capitol on January 6 and wasn’t charged with any Capitol riot-related crimes.

Trump also pardoned Daniel Edwin Wilson of Kentucky, who was under investigation for his role in the riot when authorities found six guns and roughly 4,800 rounds of ammunition in his home.

Wilson, who had been scheduled to remain in prison until 2028, was released Friday evening following the pardon, his lawyer said on Saturday.

A White House official said on Saturday that “because the search of Mr. Wilson’s home was due to the events of January 6, and they should have never been there in the first place, President Trump is pardoning Mr. Wilson for the firearm issues”.

Wilson had been sentenced in 2024 to five years in prison after pleading guilty to conspiring to impede or injure police officers and illegally possessing firearms at his home.

Trump has said he would likely sue the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) next week for as much as $5bn after the British media company admitted it wrongly edited a video of a January 6, 2021 speech he gave, but insisted there was no legal basis for his claim.

The controversy centres on the BBC’s edit of Trump’s remarks on the day his supporters stormed the US Capitol.

WASHINGTON — President Trump has pardoned his former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, his onetime chief of staff Mark Meadows and others accused of backing the Republican’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

The “full, complete, and unconditional” pardon for dozens of Trump allies are largely symbolic. It applies only to federal crimes, and none of the people named in the proclamation were charged federally over the bid to subvert the election won by Democrat Joe Biden. It doesn’t affect state charges, though state prosecutions stemming from the 2020 election have hit a dead end or are just limping along.

The move, however, underscores Trump’s continued efforts to promote the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him even though courts around the country and Trump’s own attorney general at the time found no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome. Reviews, recounts and audits of the election in the battleground states where Trump contested his loss also affirmed Biden’s victory.

Trump’s recent action follows the sweeping pardons of the hundreds of Trump supporters charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, including those convicted of attacking law enforcement.

Ed Martin, the Department of Justice’s point person on pardons and a former lawyer for the Jan. 6 defendants, linked his announcement of the pardons to a post on X that read “No MAGA left behind.”

Dozens of Trump allies received pardons

Among those also pardoned were Sidney Powell, an attorney who promoted baseless conspiracy theories about a stolen election, John Eastman, another lawyer who pushed a plan to keep Trump in power, and Jeffrey Clark, a former Justice Department official who championed Trump’s efforts to challenge his election loss.

Also named were Republicans who acted as fake electors for Trump and were charged in state cases accusing them of submitting false certificates that confirmed they were legitimate electors despite Biden’s victory in those states.

The proclamation explicitly says the pardon does not apply to the president himself, who has continued to repeat the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, used that falsehood to argue for sweeping changes in the way the country votes and demanded his Department of Justice investigate the vote count that led to his loss.

The pardon described efforts to prosecute the Trump allies as “a grave national injustice perpetrated on the American people” and said the pardons were designed to continue “the process of national reconciliation.” Giuliani and others have denied any wrongdoing, arguing they were simply challenging an election they believed was tainted by fraud.

“These great Americans were persecuted and put through hell by the Biden Administration for challenging an election, which is the cornerstone of democracy,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an emailed statement.

Those pardoned were not prosecuted by the Biden administration, however. They were charged only by state prosecutors who operate separately from the Justice Department.

An Associated Press investigation after the 2020 election found 475 cases of potential voter fraud across the six battleground states, far too few to change the outcome.

Impact of the pardons is limited

Giuliani, a former New York City mayor, was one of the most vocal supporters of Trump’s unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud after the 2020 election. He also is an example of the limited impact of the pardons.

Giuliani has been disbarred in Washington, D.C., and New York over his advocacy of Trump’s bogus election claims and lost a $148-million defamation case brought by two former Georgia election workers whose lives were upended by conspiracy theories he pushed. Since pardons only absolve people from legal responsibility for federal crimes, they’re unlikely to ease Giuliani’s legal woes.

Ted Goodman, a spokesperson for Giuliani, said the former mayor “never sought a pardon but is deeply grateful for President Trump’s decision.”

“Mayor Rudy Giuliani stands by his work following the 2020 presidential election, when he responded to the legitimate concerns of thousands of everyday Americans,” Goodman said in an emailed statement.

While the pardons may have no immediate legal impact, experts warned they send a dangerous message for future elections.

“It is a complete abdication of the responsibility of the federal government to ensure we don’t have future attempts to overturn elections,” said Rick Hasen, a UCLA law professor. “Ultimately, the message it sends is, ‘We’ll take care of you when the time comes.’”

Some pardoned were co-conspirators in Trump’s federal case

Trump himself was indicted on federal felony charges accusing him of working to overturn his 2020 election defeat, but the case brought by Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith was abandoned in November after Trump’s victory over Democrat Kamala Harris because of the department’s policy against prosecuting sitting presidents. Giuliani, Powell, Eastman and Clark were alleged co-conspirators in the federal case brought against Trump but were never charged with federal crimes.

Giuliani, Meadows and others named in the proclamation had been charged by prosecutors in Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Wisconsin over the 2020 election, but the cases have repeatedly hit roadblocks or have been dismissed. A judge in September dismissed the Michigan case against 15 Republicans accused of attempting to falsely certify Trump as the winner of the election in that battleground state.

Eastman, a former dean of Chapman University Fowler School of Law in Southern California, was a close adviser to Trump in the wake of the 2020 election and wrote a memo laying out steps Vice President Mike Pence could take to stop the counting of electoral votes while presiding over Congress’ joint session on Jan. 6 to keep Trump in office.

Clark, who is now overseeing a federal regulatory office, also is facing possible disbarment in Washington over his advocacy of Trump’s claims. Clark clashed with Justice Department superiors over a letter he drafted after the 2020 election that said the department was investigating “various irregularities” and had identified “significant concerns” that may have affected the election in Georgia and other states.

Clark said in a social media post Monday that he “did nothing wrong” and “shouldn’t have had to battle this witch hunt for 4+ years.”

Richer writes for the Associated Press. AP reporter Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.

Donald Trump

Former President Donald Trump is pictured in this photo provided by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office in Atlanta on August 24, 2023. Trump surrendered on a 13-count indictment for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia. Photo courtesy of Fulton County Sheriff’s Office/UPI | License Photo

Nov. 10 (UPI) — President Donald Trump is pardoning Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell and dozens of other allies who have been accused of trying to subvert the 2020 election, according to U.S. Pardon Attorney Ed Martin.

The list of 77 people pardoned by Trump was published late Sunday on Martin’s personal X account.

“No MAGA left behind,” he said.

The proclamation signed by Trump was dated Friday.

“This proclamation ends a grave national injustice perpetrated upon the American people following the 2020 presidential election and continues the process of national reconciliation,” the document states.

Those pardoned were tied to efforts to overturn the 2020 election, including participation in what has become known as the fake electors scheme. The strategy involved the creation of false slates of pro-Trump electors in every battleground state that he lost to Biden, including Georgia.

Among those pardoned were four of Trump’s 17 co-defendants in a case concerning the effort in Georgia, including Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the scheme. Powell, Scott Hall and Jenna Ellis were the other three.

Trump, who was among those charged in Georgia, was specifically not granted a pardon.

“This pardon does not apply to the president of the United States,” the document states.

Others granted pardons include Mark Meadows, Trump’s former chief of staff during his first term, and former Trump adviser John Eastman.

On his first day of his second term in office in January, Trump issued pardons and commutations of sentences for more than 1,500 people convicted for their participation in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, including those who injured police officers.

He has also issued pardons to former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, convicted on corruption charges, former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer and former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore.

Nov. 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday pardoned former baseball star Darryl Strawberry, and former Republican Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his chief of staff, Cade Cothren.

The two politicians were sentenced in September after federal corruption convictions.

Strawberry, 63, pleaded guilty in 1995 to tax fraud and served 11 months in a Florida state prison. Strawberry was ordered to pay $350,000 in restitution.

He played 17 seasons with the New York Mets, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants as an outfielder and designated hitter. He won four World Series — three with the Yankees and one with the Mets.

“President Trump has approved a pardon for Darryl Strawberry,” a White House official told The New York Post. “Mr. Strawberry served time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion.”

He also had three years’ probation.

“Following his career, Mr. Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for over a decade — he has become active in ministry and started a recovery center which still operates today,” the official also told CNBC.

Strawberry was suspended from Major League Baseball in 2000 after failing a drug test.

Casada, 66, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison after being convicted on 17 charges that include wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Cothren, 38, was sentenced to 30 months after being found guilty on all 19 charges.

The sentences were lower than what was possible.

“Yes, the president called me today and granted me a full pardon,” Casada told NBC News. “I am grateful of his trust and his full confidence in my innocence through this whole ordeal.”

The investigation into the Tennessee lawmakers began when Trump was first president. Raids of both men’s homes took place in January 2021. They were arrested in August 2022 and convicted in May 2024, shortly after Trump began his second term.

“The Biden Department of Justice significantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue involving constituent mailers — which were billed at competitive prices, never received a complaint from legislators, and resulted in a net profit loss of less than $5,000,” a White House official told NBC News. “The Biden DOJ responded with an armed raid, perp walk, and suggested sentences exceeding 10 years — penalties normally reserved for multimillion-dollar fraudsters.

District Judge Eli Richardson, who oversaw the case and issued the sentence was appointed by Trump.

Casada and Cothren used Phoenix Solutions to illegally funnel money to themselves for campaign and government-funded work, the Justice Department said. That included a $52,000 mail program for state legislators.

A false name, Matthew Phoenix, was used to run the company.

Casada resigned as speaker in 2019 after a no-confidence vote amid another scandal involving the two men. They were accused of exchanging sexually explicit messages about a woman.

Casada said in an apology that the texts were “not the person I am.”

Prominent Republican and country music star John Rich called for Trump to pardon them.

Cothren’s biography on X reads: “by Biden’s DOJ for standing with Trump. Convicted for refusing to break. Redeemed by grace – and not done yet.”

Trump has issued more than 1,700 pardons and commutations in both terms. That includes around 1,500 people involved in the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021.

Among Trump’s pardons during his second term are politicians: Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Republicans: former Tennessee state Sen. Brian Kelsey, former Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm of New York, and former Las Vegas City Council member Michele Fiore. Also, he commuted the sentence of former U.S. Rep. George Santos, also a Republican, for time served of three months.

Like Blagojevich, Strawberry appeared on Trump’s TV show, The Celebrity Apprentice. In 2010, he competed to win money for his foundation.