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WASHINGTON (AP) – An angry backlash Wednesday was met by US President Donald Trump’s pardons of corrupt Republican congressmen and security guards convicted of killing 14 civilians in a 2007 Baghdad massacre.
Following the pattern of previous announcements, Trump on Tuesday extended an executive clemency to individuals who demonstrated strong political support for him, and former soldiers and law enforcement officers convicted of murder in workplace shootings.
Iraqis expressed outrage and sadness after Trump pardoned the four Blackwater security contractors who were convicted of murder and manslaughter six years ago for the Nisur Square massacre.
The four, all former US servicemen, opened fire without provocation in the crowded square in 2007, killing at least 14 civilians, although Iraqi authorities estimated the death toll at 17, wounding dozens more and deeply souring relations between the United States. and Iraq.
Previous administrations were reluctant to intervene in the legal case.
But the now-defunct owner of Blackwater was Erik Prince, a close Trump supporter and brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
‘Total outrage’
“I knew we would never get justice,” Fares Saadi, the Iraqi police officer who led the investigations, told AFP.
A former classmate of a murdered medical student in Nisur called the pardons “a total outrage” but said they were not surprising.
“As far as they are concerned, our blood is cheaper than water and our demands for justice and accountability are nothing more than a nuisance,” said the classmate, for reasons of anonymity.
Retired US General Mark Hertling, who served in Iraq, called Blackwater’s pardon “egregious and disgusting.”
“This was a cowardly war crime that resulted in the death of 17 Iraqi civilians. What a shame, Mr. President, ”Hertling tweeted, using the highest death toll.
Trump also granted clemency to two men convicted in the Russia election meddling investigation from his 2016 campaign and granted clemency to three former Republican legislators that the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called “three of the members. the most corrupt Congress in recent history. ” . “
All five have been Trump supporters.
“The message Trump has sent tonight is clear: no matter how terrible his crime was, justice does not apply to you if you are loyal to him,” CREW said.
According to an analysis by Harvard Law professor Jack Goldsmith and an assistant, Matthew Gluck, at least 42 of the 65 pardons Trump has issued so far were “to advance a political agenda,” while only five were recommended by the official White House pardons. attorney.
Those pardoned, or whose sentences were commuted, include other figures convicted in Russia’s meddling investigation and a wide mix of pro-Trump activists convicted of serious crimes.
Trump also surprised prosecutors in Florida on Tuesday when he commuted the prison sentence of Philip Esformes, a healthcare mogul sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison for defrauding the federal Medicare program of $ 44 million, the fraud case. to the largest Medicare in history.
While Esformes had no obvious ties to Trump, he had the backing of several influential former attorney generals and Republican attorneys who have supported the president.
“The power to forgive is not the president’s personal tool to protect himself and his friends,” Democratic Sen. Mark Warner said Wednesday.
More forgiveness ahead
Trump is believed to be weighing other pardons, including members of his family, his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and potentially himself, to protect himself from potential litigation after his January 20 resignation.
That could provoke a new outrage, although it would probably be difficult to reverse.
Trump is also coming under pressure from libertarian and civil rights groups to pardon three people involved in national security information leaks: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and another former NSA employee, Reality Winner.
US diplomats and intelligence officials strongly oppose pardoning any of the three.
Others known for having sought pardons include former US soldier Robert Bale, convicted of murdering 16 Afghan civilians in 2012, and Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, star of the hit Netflix documentary “Tiger King,” convicted of attempting to hire. a man to assassinate a rival.
