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Of: TT
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Photo: Carolyn Kaster / AP / TT
Former foreign policy adviser to US President Donald Trump, George Papadopoulos, has served a brief prison sentence. Now he is being pardoned by the president. Stock Photography.
With only a few weeks left in the White House, outgoing President Donald Trump celebrates Christmas by pardoning 15 people. The list includes both war criminals and people connected to the so-called Russia investigation.
Two people who have been convicted of crimes related to the Russia investigation are pardoned. Including George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy adviser to the Trump campaign in 2016 and who in 2017 admitted he had lied to the FBI. He was serving a 12-day prison sentence after collaborating with investigators in the Russia Investigation, which investigated a possible link between Trump’s presidential election campaign and Russia.
The other person related to the same investigation is Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who was also convicted and served a short prison term.
The pardons list also includes three former Republican members of Congress.
Forgiven after massacres
In addition, there are four former military guards, who in 2007 killed at least 14 Iraqi civilians in a massacre in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad. One of them, Nicholas Slatten, was sentenced to life imprisonment, but is now serving his sentence.
All four were working for the security company Blackwater, which had been hired by the US military, when they opened fire on Nisurtorget on September 16, 2007. The bloody massacre turned into an international scandal and diluted anger at the presence of the United States. in the country. The four guards claimed that they were acting in self-defense.
The White House said in a statement that the men, who had previously been in the US military, “have been serving the country for a long time.”
Forgiven before
It is not unusual for presidents of the United States to use their last days in power to forgive people. In November, Trump pardoned his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who admitted in connection with the Russia investigation that he had lied to the FBI. In July, the president also lifted the prison sentence for his former adviser Roger Stone.
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