https://nypost.com/2021/01/14/qanon-shaman-rioter-wants-pardon-from-president-trump/ ‘QAnon Shaman’ Capitol rioter wants pardon from President Trump The attorney representing the so-called “QAnon Shaman” who stormed the US Capitol in a bizarre getup says President Trump should pardon his client before he leaves office next week. Attorney Al Watkins said his client Jacob Chansley, 33, was acting on Trump’s invitation when he and others forced their way into the Capitol on Jan. 6, as Congress began formally counting the Electoral College votes to certify President-elect Joe Biden’s win. “The words and invitation of a president are supposed to mean something,” Watkins said in a statement to the Kansas City Star. Chansley “took seriously the countless messages of President Trump,” he added.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/17/politics/trump-pardons-expected/index.html Trump to issue around 100 pardons and commutations Tuesday, sources say (CNN)President Donald Trump is preparing to issue around 100 pardons and commutations on his final full day in office Tuesday, according to three people familiar with the matter, a major batch of clemency actions that includes white collar criminals, high-profile rappers and others but -- as of now -- is not expected to include Trump himself. The White House held a meeting on Sunday to finalize the list of pardons, two sources said. Trump, who had been rolling out pardons and commutations at a steady clip ahead of Christmas, had put a pause on them in the days leading up to and directly after the January 6 riots at the US Capitol, according to officials. Aides said Trump was singularly focused on the Electoral College count in the days ahead of time, precluding him for making final decisions on pardons. White House officials had expected them to resume after January 6, but Trump retreated after he was blamed for inciting the riots. Initially, two major batches had been ready to roll out, one at the end of last week and one on Tuesday. Now, officials expect the last batch to be the only one -- unless Trump decides at the last minute to grant pardons to controversial allies, members of his family or himself. The final batch of clemency actions is expected to include a mix of criminal justice reform-minded pardons and more controversial ones secured or doled out to political allies. The pardons are one of several items Trump must complete before his presidency ends in days. White House officials also still have executive orders prepared, and the President is still hopeful to declassify information related to the Russia probe before he leaves office. But with a waning number of administration officials still in jobs, the likelihood that any of it gets done seemed to be shrinking. The January 6 riots that led to Trump's second impeachment have complicated his desire to pardon himself, his kids and personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani. At this point, aides do not think he will do so, but caution only Trump knows what he will do with his last bit of presidential power before he is officially out of office at noon on January 20. After the riots, advisers encouraged Trump to forgo a self-pardon because it would appear like he was guilty of something, according to one person familiar with the conversations. Several of Trump's closest advisers have also urged him not to grant clemency to anyone involved in the siege on the US Capitol, despite Trump's initial stance that those involved had done nothing wrong. "There are a lot of people urging the President to pardon the folks" involved in the insurrection, Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham said Sunday on Fox News. "To seek a pardon of these people would be wrong." One White House official said paperwork had not yet been drawn up for a self-pardon. Still, Trump is expected to leave the White House on January 20 and could issue pardons up until noon on Inauguration Day. Other attention-grabbing names, like Julian Assange, are also not currently believed to among the people receiving pardons, but the list is still fluid and that could change, too. It's also not certain whether Trump's former adviser Steve Bannon will receive a pardon. 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. Salomon Melgen clemency possible Dr. Salomon Melgen, a prominent eye doctor from Palm Beach, Florida, who is in prison after being convicted on dozens of counts of health care fraud, is currently expected to be included in the clemency list, three sources familiar tell CNN. Melgen, who is noteworthy for being the co-conspirator in a since-dismissed corruption case against Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, was sentenced to 17 years for health care fraud in 2018. While his name surprised some Trump allies given the President's attitude toward Menendez, Melgen is seen as a wealthy and influential figure in south Florida. The corruption case against Menendez and Melgen was dropped by the Justice Department in January 2018. Inside the White House, there has been a scramble to petition for pardons on behalf of allies and advocacy groups and names could be added and taken off up until the last minute, sources say. CNN previously reported there has been a crush of pardon requests during Trump's final days in office from allies, lobbyists and others hoping to cash in on their loyalty to Trump. The New York Times reported Sunday some of those people were getting paid tens of thousands of dollars to lobby on behalf of felons hoping for pardons.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news...in-line-for-last-day-pardon-from-donald-trump Rapper Lil Wayne in line for last-day pardon from Donald Trump Lil Wayne pleaded guilty last month to possessing a loaded, gold-plated handgun when his chartered jet landed in Miami in December 2019. He faces a sentence of up to 10 years in prison at a 28 January hearing in Miami. The rapper appeared to support Trump during last year’s presidential campaign when he tweeted a photo of himself with the president and said he backed Trump’s criminal justice reform programme and economic plan for African Americans.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...rdon-bannon-accused-of-defrauding-wall-donors Trump Likely to Pardon Bannon, Accused of Defrauding Donors https://www.foxnews.com/us/tiger-king-star-joe-exotic-limousine-pardon-donald-trump ‘Tiger King’ star Joe Exotic books stretch limousine, expecting pardon from President Trump https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/19/us/politics/trump-pardons.html Trump’s final wave of pardons includes names pushed by criminal justice reform advocates. In the past, the administration has emphasized clemency for low-level offenders in order to blunt criticism that Mr. Trump was inappropriately offering pardons to people to whom he had personal connections. Tuesday’s group includes nonviolent offenders whose names have been percolating for years among advocates who believe their punishments never fit their crimes and whose cases underscore the broken nature of the country’s criminal justice system. Among those being pardoned Tuesday, according to people directly involved in the process, are Darrell Frazier, who has served more than 30 years of a life sentence for drug conspiracy charges. During his incarceration, Mr. Frazier founded the Joe Johnson Tennis Foundation, a nonprofit supporting children in Chattanooga, Tenn. Craig Cesal has been serving a life sentence without parole on a marijuana charge. “My crime was that my truck repair business in Chicago fixed trucks operated by a Florida long-haul trucking company whose drivers trafficked marijuana in the south,” he told The Washington Post in 2016. Lavonne Roach, a nonviolent drug offender, has been serving a 30-year sentence after she was charged with conspiracy to distribute meth. Ms. Roach, a Lakota Sioux woman, has been in prison since 1994. Chalana McFarland was sentenced in 2005 to 30 years for multiple counts of mortgage fraud. She was sent to prison when her daughter was 4 years old. Since July, she has been serving her sentence at home because of concerns about the spread of the coronavirus in Florida prisons. Michael Pelletier, a paraplegic who has used a wheelchair since he was 11, was serving a life sentence in federal prison for a nonviolent marijuana conspiracy offense. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/us/politics/trump-pardons.html Another person under consideration for clemency is Sholam Weiss, the recipient of what is believed to be the longest-ever white-collar prison sentence, according to one person who discussed the matter with a family member and another person briefed on conversations in the White House. Mr. Weiss was sentenced to more than 800 years in prison in 2000 for racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering related to an immense fraud scheme that siphoned $450 million from an insurance company, leading to its collapse. He spent a year on the run before being arrested in Austria and extradited to the United States. Mr. Weiss has attracted support from people with ties to Mr. Trump, including the lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz, who represented Mr. Trump in his first impeachment before the Senate last year, and Brett Tolman, a former prosecutor who has worked with the White House on clemency requests and filed paperwork last month indicating he had been lobbying “seeking support for clemency” for Mr. Weiss. Mr. Weiss’s supporters argue that his sentence is an example of the so-called trial penalty, where prosecutors offer less prison time in exchange for guilty pleas, then pursue much lengthier sentences at trial to punish those who turn down such deals.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/trump-pardons-bannon-allies-final-night-office/story?id=75360429 Trump pardons Bannon, other allies on final night in office The move came after Trump had already issued dozens of pardons in recent months. In the waning hours of his time in office, President Donald Trump late Tuesday issued a final batch of pardons and commutations to a group that included former White House strategist Steve Bannon and two other longtime political allies, Elliott Broidy and Paul Erickson, in a move that will further solidify Trump's legacy of using his sweeping presidential powers to benefit his inner circle. The latest batch of names, released by the White House on Trump's final night as president, granted 73 pardons and commuted all or part of the sentence of 70 additional individuals, after Trump had already issued several dozen such directives in recent months. The most notable recipient is Bannon, who served as an executive at Breitbart before joining Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, then was indicted last August on charges tied to an alleged conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering related to a crowdfunding effort to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon had been largely out of Trump's orbit until recently, when reports surfaced that he had been quietly contributing to the president's post-election strategy. MORE: Steve Bannon calls his arrest 'a political hit job,' says effort was in support of Trump "Mr. Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen," read a statement released by the White House late Tuesday. Prosecutors have accused Bannon of defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors to the "We Build the Wall" fundraising campaign by falsely claiming that he and other organizers would not take a cut of any donated funds. Investigators allege that organizers of the group, including Bannon, were syphoning off at least $1 million for their own personal expenses, according to prosecutors. Bannon has repeatedly claimed that his actions were only meant to support of the president -- but in an ironic twist, many of those who were allegedly defrauded were among the president's most ardent rank-and-file supporters. Since Bannon's indictment, Trump has sought to distance himself from his onetime top adviser. For his part, Bannon called his arrest -- which occurred over the summer on a boat docked in Westport, Connecticut -- a "political hit job." He and his three co-defendants all pleaded not guilty, and his trial date had been set for May 24, 2021. Broidy is a California financier who emerged as a top Trump fundraiser in 2016. He agreed to plead guilty in October to illegal lobbying for foreign interests as part of a massive federal investigation into the embezzlement of a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund. Prosecutors were investigating Broidy for allegedly lobbying the Trump administration to drop their investigation into a man charged as the alleged mastermind of the $4.5 billion Malaysian fraud scheme. Broidy's advisers declined to comment when asked recently if he would seek a pardon from Trump. Trump's pardon for Erickson, 59, comes as the seasoned Republican operative from South Dakota had begun serving an 84-month sentence in a Minnesota federal prison last year. He had pleaded guilty last year to defrauding investors in an oil venture after being indicted on a range of fraud charges. The veteran conservative insider gained national attention earlier in the Trump presidency as the love interest of convicted Russian agent Maria Butina, a gun-toting Second Amendment activist who was nearly 30 years his junior. Erickson helped Butina gain access to a range of high-profile political figures as she worked as a clandestine foreign agent. Prosecutors called it a "duplicitous relationship," and Butina later pleaded guilty and was ultimately permitted to return home to Russia. Erickson was never charged with any wrongdoing in Butina's case, and his attorney said at the time that Erickson "a good American" who "has never done anything to hurt our country and never would." "Mr. Erickson's conviction was based off the Russian collusion hoax. After finding no grounds to charge him with any crimes with respect to connections with Russia, he was charged with a minor financial crime," read the White House statement. "This pardon helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History." At least one recipient in Trump's final batch of pardons allegedly paid "tens of thousands of dollars" to the president's former lawyer for help securing it, according to The New York Times. William T. Walters, who was convicted on insider trading charges, reportedly sought the help of Trump's former personal attorney, John Dowd, who "marketed himself" as someone who could use his access to the White House to secure the pardon for Walters and other convicted felons, according to the Times. Dowd denied that he had used his access to lobby for pardons. MORE: Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, Charles Kushner among those pardoned by Trump Bannon, Broidy and Erickson join a long list of former Trump allies and supporters to have their legal travails squashed through Trump's intervention.
Elliot Broidy was busted taking bribes to help overturn convictions involving massive corruption by Chinese and Malaysian officials, and RWNJs somehow thought Trump was tough on China. It's hilarious how dumb Trumpers are.
Michael Cohen Says Donald Trump Issued Secret ‘Pocket Pardons’ For Himself & His Kids https://www.inquisitr.com/6459880/cohen-trump-pocket-pardons/ Former Donald Trump attorney Michael Cohen appeared on MSNBC on Sunday and claimed that the former head of state likely issued himself and his children secret “pocket pardons,” Raw Story reported. According to Cohen, these pardons could be used sometime in the future and essentially act as “get out of jail free” cards. “I think Donald Trump actually has given himself the pardon. I think he also has pocket pardons for his children and for Rudy [Giuliani] and it’s already stashed somewhere that, if and when they do get indicted and that there’s a criminal conviction, federal criminal conviction brought against him, he already has the pardons in hand.” Cohen claimed that the U.S. Constitution does not stipulate that pardons have to be disclosed to the American public and press. The disbarred lawyer also argued that Trump does not respect the law and will do anything for his own benefit — including using his purported “pocket pardon.” In an op-ed for The Washington Post, Jeffrey Crouch, an assistant professor of American politics at American University, argued that “secret pardons” would not likely work. Although Crouch noted that such clemency has not been tested in court, he pointed to the intentions of the Constitution’s framers and suggested that the president cannot relieve himself from the judgment of decisions that nobody is aware of but himself. “Although the framers imagined a broad pardon power, secret pardons are untenable, likely inadvisable and perhaps unconstitutional.” Although Trump pardoned some allies — including former White Hosue strategist Steve Bannon — CNN claimed he was talked out of pardoning himself and Republican lawmakers in Congress. Notably, the publication said that White House counsel Pat Cipollone and Eric Herschmann, who represented Trump in his first impeachment trial, gave the then-president the warning during his final Saturday in office. With Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump listening, the former U.S. leader was allegedly cautioned that issuing pardons to himself and his family would make them appear guilty and potentially open up the door to even more legal trouble. According to CNN, Trump was advised not to issue preemptive clemency unless he could list specific crimes. Former Attorney General William Barr also allegedly warned Trump against issuing pardons to himself in the weeks leading up to his exit from the White House. As The Inquisitr reported, Cohen previously suggested that Trump’s pardons could harm him in the future. In particular, the lawyer noted that pardoned individuals could no longer invoke the fifth amendment and suggested some of Trump’s allies might be forced to testify against him.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...362130-88be-11eb-8a8b-5cf82c3dffe4_story.html Bannon battling prosecutors who won’t dismiss his case after Trump’s pardon NEW YORK — Stephen K. Bannon, the firebrand political strategist and ex-confidant to former president Donald Trump, is fighting to get his federal fraud case formally dismissed over the strong objection of prosecutors, who have argued that his full pardon does not mean his indictment must be wiped from the record. Bannon, who helped engineer Trump’s 2016 election win before briefly serving as a White House adviser, asked a judge late Thursday to follow others in New York and elsewhere who outright dismissed cases after Trump issued pardons. To support his bid, Bannon cited the post-pardon dismissals of charges against Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser accused of lying about his contacts with Russian officials, and rapper Lil’ Wayne, who was facing gun charges in Florida. The U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, which is preparing for trial against three of Bannon’s co-defendants in an alleged border wall fundraising scam, is seeking an “administrative” termination of Bannon’s case, which would halt the prosecution against him for good but would not clear his name from the docket. The case would officially remain pending while the others, who were not pardoned by Trump before he left office in January, await trial. Following Bannon’s pardon, which covers only federal charges, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office began its own investigation of the alleged scam, raising the possibility that Bannon could face state fraud charges. If his case remains open in federal court, it is not expected to affect the ability of state prosecutors to file charges. It is not clear why the U.S. attorney is challenging what was expected to be a straightforward dismissal of Bannon’s case, or whether prosecutors believe the case against the remaining three would suffer strategically at trial should Bannon be officially excluded. In a letter to U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres on Feb. 25, prosecutors argued that “the pardon granted to Bannon is not a basis to dismiss the Indictment against him” and that it does not eliminate the probable cause that led to his indictment, “nor does it undercut the evidence of his involvement therein which the Government expects to elicit as part of its presentation at trial.” “Were the Court to dismiss the Indictment against Bannon, it could have a broader effect than the pardon itself, among other things potentially relieving Bannon of certain consequences not covered by the pardon,” the letter continued, citing an unrelated case in which a pardoned commodities dealer could not register as a broker. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment further about its request to keep Bannon’s case pending. A response to Bannon’s motion is expected in two weeks. It is not clear when the judge is expected to rule on the matter. Bannon’s attorney Robert Costello argued in the motion that the U.S. attorney’s office is already treating the case as if Bannon were no longer part of it. Prosecutors reminded Costello of his obligation to return or destroy evidence received in the pretrial document-sharing process known as discovery, and Bannon has stopped receiving new discovery materials that his alleged accomplices are receiving. Costello said the dismissal is being sought because a pardon “means that Mr. Bannon will never be brought to trial” and because, as a person who has not been convicted, Bannon “is presumed by the Constitution to be an innocent man.” “The presumption of innocence can only be removed by a conviction which will never happen in this case,” Costello added. “The only purpose of an indictment is to apprise an individual of the charges against him or her, and to bring that defendant to trial based upon those charges.” In the case of Flynn, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan rejected the Justice Department’s request to dismiss but indicated there was no other option but to do so once Trump stepped in with a clemency order. “Because the law recognizes the President’s political power to pardon, the appropriate course is to dismiss this case as moot,” the judge said at the time, according to an account in Bannon’s motion. Similarly, a federal court in Florida dismissed a gun case against rapper Lil’ Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Carter. Trump pardoned Carter along with dozens of others on his final day in office. Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and another person to receive a pardon — in a stalking case in Brooklyn — saw the matter wiped from the docket without argument. Bannon was arrested in August and accused of defrauding supporters of “We Build the Wall,” a private effort ostensibly intended to raise money to build an imposing barrier along the U.S.-Mexico border — Trump’s signature campaign promise in 2016. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million while conveying to contributors that the entirety of the funds collected would support wall construction. He had pleaded not guilty. The organization’s founder, Air Force veteran Brian Kolfage, is still expected to stand trial, along with co-defendants Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea. They also have pleaded not guilty.