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Donald Trump is expected to grant new waves of bold pardons for allies and supporters, possibly even himself, in a frenzied last month as US president.
Trump caused revulsion at home and abroad with dozens of pardons that included four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 Baghdad massacre that left more than a dozen Iraqi civilians dead on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the series of pardons included close political allies such as Roger Stone and former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, as well as Charles Kushner, father of his own son-in-law and top adviser, Jared Kushner.
The Manafort and Stone pardons rewarded two of Trump’s most notorious former advisers, who were convicted of crimes after being indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller, who investigated Russian meddling in the 2016 campaign.
Critics cautioned that the barrage of pardons is still likely the beginning. In the final weeks of his presidency, Trump is said to be considering more interventions on behalf of aides, friends and family who he believes have been unjustly jailed, charged or put in legal danger.
Tuesday’s pardons also included two men convicted as a result of a special counsel investigation into Trump’s ties to Russia, three corrupt former Republican congressmen and, perhaps most controversially, four security guards employed by a private security firm in Iraq. .
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard were serving long prison terms. Prosecutors alleged that the men launched an unprovoked attack on a busy roundabout using sniper fire, machine guns and grenade launchers in September 2007 in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square.
The Iraqis condemned the act of clemency as a betrayal of the Western allies. Ali Bayati, from Iraq’s Human Rights Commission, told AFP news agency: “The latest decision confirms the violations of human rights and international law in these countries. They grant immunity to their soldiers even when they claim to protect human rights. “
Critics in the United States pointed out that the four men worked for Blackwater, which was founded by Erik Prince, one of Trump’s longtime supporters and allies. Prince is the brother of Betsy DeVos, the secretary of education.
Hina Shamsi, director of the national security project for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the shootings caused “devastation in Iraq, shame and horror in the United States and a global scandal. President Trump insults the memory of the Iraqi victims and further degrades his position with this action. “
There were also pardons for three Republican congressmen, including the first two to endorse Trump’s presidential campaign in 2016. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty last year to embezzlement of campaign funds and was sentenced to 11 months in prison. Chris Collins pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to commit securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI and is serving his 26-month sentence.
The president also granted clemency to George Papadopoulos, a former campaign aide who pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to FBI agents about the timing and importance of his contacts with people who claimed to have ties to senior Russian officials.
He also pardoned Alex van der Zwaan, who was sentenced to 30 days in prison and fined $ 20,000 for lying to Mueller investigators about contacts with an official in the Trump campaign in 2016.
Trump has issued divisive pardons before, including for his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who also admitted to lying to the FBI, but Tuesday’s group was seen as crossing a new moral line and prompting strong reprimands.
Noah Bookbinder, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said: “There have been many shameful and cowardly demonstrations of Donald Trump using the presidency to benefit himself and his cronies, but there may be nothing worse than these. pardons. “
The Democratic National Committee said in a statement: “Christmas came early for convicted criminals with personal ties to Trump and who serve his political interests.”
The pardons came as Trump rushed into his final four weeks in office, eager to test the loyalty of Republican allies. He turned the apple cart upside down again Tuesday by threatening to derail a $ 900 billion coronavirus aid package that Congress had spent months negotiating, demanding $ 2,000 payments from U.S. citizens instead of the agreed-upon $ 600.
Trump is also pushing Republicans to revoke the presidential election when Congress meets to ratify the electoral college results on January 6. Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, told CNN that Trump’s pardons send a typically transactional message: “If you lie for me, if you are loyal to me, I will abuse my power to protect you.”
Trump is not the first president to exploit what may seem like an anachronistic power of the presidency. On his last day in office, Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, a commodities trader accused of tax evasion and illegal trade, in what a New York Times editorial called “a shocking abuse of presidential power.”
But Trump has gone further: About nine out of 10 of the pardons he has granted have been for people who may claim personal ties to him or offer him political benefits. Few observers doubt that there is more to come, possibly including preventives for him, whose constitutionality would be highly controversial, and his family.
Allan Lichtman, a history professor at the American University in Washington, said: “Trump has already broken so many American traditions that I’m not sure what he does with pardons will hold up or set a precedent for future presidents. I don’t think Biden, for example, is going to follow any precedent from Trump. “
