Trump Issues a String of Pardons Before He Leaves Office
Written by SOURCE on December 23, 2020
As many expected, Donald Trump has begun issuing a series of pardons ahead of the end of his presidential term. On Tuesday, the lame duck announced pardons for several Trump loyalists, war criminals, and other questionable characters.
According to CNN, Trump is pardoning his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos and Dutch lawyer Alex Van der Zwaan, both of whom pled guilty to lying to investigators during the Russia investigation spearheaded by Robert Mueller. Both Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan spent less than a month behind bars.
Trump’s announcement also included forgiving two Border Patrol agents who were convicted for shooting an unarmed undocumented immigrant and hiding it in 2006, as well as early Trump supporters and former US congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins. Hunter was sentenced to less than a year for misuse of over $200,000 in campaign funds, while Collins is currently in federal prison in Florida after pleading guilty to “one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and one count of making a false statement.”
Trump also pardoned four Blackwater guards who were sentenced for the brutal murder of more than a dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians, a move that immediately garnered criticism.
In addition to those pardons, Trump also forgave “several people convicted of non-violent drug crimes serving lengthy sentences” under the recommendation of Alice Johnson, who Kim Kardashian helped receive clemency in 2018, CNN reports.
These are the first of what is expected to be a larger list of pardons by Trump before he leaves office next month.
