{"id":65085,"date":"2020-12-25T01:56:16","date_gmt":"2020-12-25T01:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=65085"},"modified":"2020-12-25T01:56:16","modified_gmt":"2020-12-25T01:56:16","slug":"trump-pardons-more-allies-and-kushners-father-sparking-fresh-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=65085","title":{"rendered":"Trump pardons more allies and Kushner\u2019s father, sparking fresh outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"WASHINGTON, Dec 24, 2020 (BSS\/AFP) \u2013 US President Donald Trump issued new pardons Wednesday for allies including the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and two people caught up in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that brought him to power.<\/p>\n

The pardons added to a long list he has granted in his waning days in office and sparked fresh outrage.<\/p>\n

Among those pardoned were Charles Kushner, who pleaded guilty to charges including tax evasion and witness tampering in 2004, as well as former campaign manager Paul Manafort and longtime adviser Roger Stone.<\/p>\n

The three men were among 26 people pardoned and three who had all or part of their sentences commuted by Trump.<\/p>\n

They come only a day after Trump pardoned another 15 people and commuted sentences for five, including corrupt Republican congressmen and security guards convicted of killing 14 civilians in a 2007 Baghdad massacre.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s pardon of Manafort, who was at the heart of the investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller into allegations of Russian interference in the election four years ago, triggered fury that Trump was trying to erase the probe he has always described as a \u201cwitch hunt.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democratic congressman Adam Schiff, who heads the House intelligence committee, said in a tweet that \u201cduring the Mueller investigation, Trump\u2019s lawyer floated a pardon to Manafort. Manafort withdrew his cooperation with prosecutors, lied, was convicted and then Trump praised him for not \u2018ratting.\u2019 Trump\u2019s pardon now completes the corrupt scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manafort himself took to Twitter, saying, \u201cYou truly did \u2018Make America Great Again.\u2019 God Bless you & your family. I wish you a Merry Christmas & many good wishes for the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n

David Axelrod, a political commentator and former aide to president Barack Obama, said of the move, \u201cEveryone saw this raw sewage dump of pardons and commutations for @realDonaldTrump apparatchiks and loyalists coming \u2026 Yet the spectacle is still appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n

The latest moves follow earlier announcements, with Trump extending executive clemency to people who showed strong political support for him, and former soldiers and law enforcement officials convicted of murder in on-the-job shootings.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the day, Iraqis had expressed outrage and sadness after Trump delivered pardons for the four Blackwater security contractors who were convicted of murder and manslaughter six years ago for the Nisur Square massacre.<\/p>\n

The four, all former US servicemen, opened fire unprovoked on the crowded square in 2007, leaving at least 14 civilians dead \u2014 though Iraqi authorities put the toll as high as 17 \u2014 while wounding dozens more and deeply souring US-Iraqi relations.<\/p>\n

\u2013 \u2018Utter outrage\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cI knew we\u2019d never get justice,\u201d Fares Saadi, the Iraqi police officer who led the investigations, told AFP.<\/p>\n

Retired US general Mark Hertling, who served in Iraq, called the Blackwater pardon \u201cegregious and disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a craven war crime that resulted in the death of 17 Iraqi civilians. Shame on you Mr President,\u201d Hertling tweeted, using the higher death toll.<\/p>\n

Trump had also extended pardons to two more minor figures in the 2016 Russia election meddling investigation, and granted clemency to three former Republican lawmakers that watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington called \u201cthree of the most corrupt members of Congress in recent history.\u201d<\/p>\n

All five have been vocal supporters of Trump.<\/p>\n

Trump also stunned prosecutors in Florida Tuesday when he commuted the prison sentence of Philip Esformes, a health care tycoon sentenced in 2019 to 20 years in prison for bilking the federal Medicare program of $44 million dollars, the largest-ever Medicare fraud case.<\/p>\n

While Esformes had no evident links to Trump, he was backed by several influential former Republican attorneys general and prosecutors who have supported the president.<\/p>\n

\u2013 More pardons ahead\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Trump is believed to be weighing other pardons including members of his family, his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and potentially himself, to protect from potential litigation after he steps down on January 20.<\/p>\n

That could spark even greater uproar, though would likely be difficult to reverse.<\/p>\n

Trump is also being pressed by libertarian and civil rights groups to pardon three people involved in leaks of national security information \u2014 WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, and another ex-NSA employee Reality Winner.<\/p>\n

Others known to have requested pardons include former US soldier Robert Bale, convicted of murdering 16 Afghan civilians in 2012, and Joseph Maldonado-Passage, better known as Joe Exotic, the star of the hit Netflix documentary \u201cTiger King\u201d, convicted of trying to hire a man to murder a rival.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, Dec 24, 2020 (BSS\/AFP) \u2013 US President Donald Trump issued new pardons Wednesday for allies including the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner and two people caught up in the probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election that brought him to power. The pardons added to a long list he has granted in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65086,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\t\n