All posts tagged "Pardon"

Wealthy criminals seeking a pardon from President Donald Trump are running into a brutal surprise, according to the New York Post.

Not only have convicted criminals with deep pockets been confronted with "staggering" seven-figure prices for a bid at a Trump pardon, but some of them aren't even being pardoned despite paying up, the Post reported Saturday.

"The majority of the people paying big bucks are not getting what they want," Mark Osler, a law professor at the University of St. Thomas, told the Post. "A lot of them are scammers being scammed."...

Rep. James Comer (R-KY) suggested on Monday that pardons issued by former President Joe Biden should be declared "null and void," prompting a wave of reactions online.

The Chairman of the House Oversight Committee appeared on Fox Business to discuss pardons, including the preemptive pardon issued by Biden for Dr. Anthony Fauci. In an explosive new Washington Post report, new details emerged involving former Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard's actions and her accusations that Fauci had led a COVID coverup.

Comer argued during the live interview that Biden had never held any meetings ahead of pardons....

Ex-Republican operative Rick Wilson said Thursday that he anticipates President Donald Trump will extend a pardon to Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.

In his Substack, the co-founder of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project wrote how Trump's pervasive use of pardons could soon lead to Maxwell's exit from prison.

"And the pardons. Dear God, the pardons," Wilson wrote. "What was once the solemn prerogative of a sovereign, the mercy of a republic, the final conscience of the state, is now a product on a shelf, with a price tag payable in cash, crypto, or the correct political humiliation."...

Ghislaine Maxwell's condition to testify under oath — but only under the condition of clemency — has split House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members over whether President Donald Trump should grant her that pardon, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) told Politico on Wednesday.

Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein's co-conspirator, was deposed by the committee and invoked her Fifth Amendment right to decline to answer the group's questions. Trump is the only one with the power to pardon her, something he has not yet ruled out.

Comer told Politico that he did not favor a pardon for Maxwell, a former confidant to the late financier and convicted child sex offender. When asked whether striking a deal with Maxwell could provide useful testimony, Comer did not share who on the panel supported granting her clemency....

Questions have mounted over whether President Donald Trump has sold off pardons in exchange for donations to his MAGA allies.

The controversy surrounding these presidential pardons has "just got louder," wrote Steve Benen, producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show” and editor of MaddowBlog, in an analysis published Monday.

Trump has rewarded "generous donors with clemency," which was revealed in a Wall Street Journal report in December that detailed some of the alleged inner workings that have "spawned a pardon-shopping industry where lobbyists say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million if they can close the deal, according to people familiar with the offers.”...

Donald Trump is on "an epic binge" of handing out presidential pardons, and a political commentator believes a disgraced ex-Senator could be next.

The president could be set to give a pardon to Bob Menendez, the Democrat Senator serving 11 years in prison for accepting bribes of gold and cash to act as an agent on behalf of Egypt. The 71-year-old ex-Senator started his stint in prison earlier this year but Trump, who has spoken positively about Menendez in the past, could step in. This comes according to The Bulwark, with Andrew Egger believing Trump could pardon the disgraced lawmaker.

It would not be the first pardon Trump has issued during his second term as president, with Egger noting the president has been trigger happy with who he released from prison. The Bulwark reporter wrote, "He’s [Trump] even undoing indictments that his own Justice Department is issuing: Last night, as we were finishing up this newsletter, Trump pardoned a real estate developer who was facing charges of corruptly rigging an arena-building bidding process at the University of Texas to favor his own company. The president is on an epic binge."...