Trump’s Pardon-palooza: Yet Another Insult to Americans
Various media outlets are reporting that President Trump is preparing to issue as many as 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office today.
As of now, he’s seen as unlikely to try to pardon himself or his adult offspring because it could open the door for more non-pardonable state prosecutions and aid in the prosecutions of others under federal investigation.
Trump also recorded a farewell video on Monday, so Fox News will have some content during the transition. I mean, really, who gives a crap what the man has to say at this point? We all know it will be a mixture of self-aggrandizing lies and conspiracy theories.
Back to the pardons….
A mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons of the sort traditionally granted by presidents and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies is what we’ll see in the final batch of clemency actions.
According to CNN:
Trump is still receiving multiple streams of recommendations on pardons from those advisers who remain at the White House, as well as people outside the building who have been lobbying for months for themselves or their clients.
The expectation among allies is that Trump will issue pardons that he could benefit from post presidency.
"Everything is a transaction. He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favors for people he thinks will owe him," one source familiar with the matter said.
https://twitter.com/chipfranklin/status/1351616274728513542?s=20
It should surprise exactly nobody that the circle of grifters surrounding the oval office is seeking to profit from this last wave of pardons.
According to the New York Times:
The pardon lobbying heated up as it became clear that Mr. Trump had no recourse for challenging his election defeat, lobbyists and lawyers say. One lobbyist, Brett Tolman, a former federal prosecutor who has been advising the White House on pardons and commutations, has monetized his clemency work, collecting tens of thousands of dollars, and possibly more, in recent weeks to lobby the White House for clemency for the son of a former Arkansas senator; the founder of the notorious online drug marketplace Silk Road; and a Manhattan socialite who pleaded guilty in a fraud scheme.
Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer John M. Dowd has marketed himself to convicted felons as someone who could secure pardons because of his close relationship with the president, accepting tens of thousands of dollars from a wealthy felon and advising him and other potential clients to leverage Mr. Trump’s grievances about the justice system.
A onetime top adviser to the Trump campaign was paid $50,000 to help seek a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, and agreed to a $50,000 bonus if the president granted it, according to a copy of an agreement.
And Mr. Kiriakou was separately told that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani could help him secure a pardon for $2 million. Mr. Kiriakou rejected the offer, but an associate, fearing that Mr. Giuliani was illegally selling pardons, alerted the F.B.I. Mr. Giuliani challenged this characterization.
https://twitter.com/crzyfkinworld/status/1351237093662580745?s=20
On his way out the door, Trump is still trying to trash the joint.
On Monday Trump announced a lifting of travel bans to allow "the unrestricted entry into the United States of persons who have been physically present in the Schengen Area, the United Kingdom (excluding overseas territories outside of Europe), the Republic of Ireland, and the Federative Republic of Brazil" beginning on January 26th.
Not so fast, said incoming White House press secretary Jen Psaki, pointing out that the start date is after Trump's term ends.
https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/1351322381864890370?s=20
An administration scheme to overhaul the federal civil service classification system has fallen short. It boggles the mind to think of just how more damage could have been done to institutions had the Trump team been able to find anything more than political hacks to fill various posts.
Via the Washington Post:
President Trump’s last-ditch effort to remove civil service protections from tens of thousands of career federal employees appears to have lost steam, facing time constraints and legal hurdles as the administration prepares to leave office, officials said.
As a result, President-elect Joe Biden will become president Wednesday with an executive order in place to carry out the biggest change to the civil service in a generation — but no completed paperwork to reclassify the affected employees so they can be fired without cause. Allies of Biden say he’s likely to reverse Trump’s order.
https://twitter.com/thenation/status/1351559799545229312?s=20
Trump’s final days at the White House have been chock full of self-pity, resentment, and denial. The bastard still thinks he won the election, which would be humorous except for the fact that his rabid followers agree with everything the man says.
From Washington Post coverage:
Since Jan. 6, every day has dumped more bad news on the president, including his historic second impeachment. But one person close to the president said it can be hard to predict what will bother him most and that even with all that was going on, he was particularly upset that Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Tom Hanks and other stars agreed to perform as part of Biden’s inaugural celebrations.
President Trump, in his days as the star of “The Apprentice” reality-TV show, often attended star-studded events. A believer in the power of being associated with marquee names, he hired Elton John and Billy Joel to sing at his and Melania’s wedding in 2005. But his harsh rhetoric, hard-line immigration policy and other stances during the 2016 campaign led Hollywood to largely boycott his inauguration. Now as Trump rages about what he describes as unfair treatment from all sides — from people he hired, from businesses he helped with his policies, from members of his own party and even from celebrities — his wife just shrugs and moves on.
https://twitter.com/RandyRainbow/status/1351551403689447425?s=20
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