US President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a second round of pardons for a new group of loyalists, including longtime ally Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and his son-in-law and senior White House advisor Jared Kushner’s father, Charles Kushner.
Both Manafort and Stone lied to authorities and declined to cooperate with prosecutors aiding special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, while Kushner was charged in the early 2000s for tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign contributions. Also among the recipients was former California GOP Rep. Duncan Hunter’s wife, Margaret, who was pardoned just one day after her husband. Mrs. Hunter had pleaded guilty last year to conspiring “knowingly and willingly” to convert campaign funds for personal use.
With just a few weeks left in his term, Trump has moved swiftly to use his executive powers for lawbreakers who have been close allies, or well-connected and adjacent to his family. According to the New York Times, 60 of the 65 pardons and commutations granted by Trump before Wednesday have gone to petitioners with personal ties to the president. However, it’s not just his campaign and GOP allies that Trump has sought to pardon. The president has also used his expansive clemency powers to exonerate individuals convicted of very serious crimes like murder.
On Tuesday, he pardoned four security guards convicted of killing at least 14 Iraqis, including children, in Baghdad in 2007. They were a part of an armoured convoy of vehicles escorting United States embassy officials that opened fire at a crowd of unarmed Iraqi civilians in an incident that came to be known as the Nisour Square massacre. The deadly attack was one of the lowest points of the US’ invasion of Iraq and came just a few years after the horrifying Abu Ghraib torture scandal. Trump’s decision on Tuesday was condemned not just by survivors of the massacre, but also the Iraqi government, who urged the US to reconsider its decision. The UN expressed concern over the matter as well, arguing that it “contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future”.
Apart from issuing pardons, Trump on Wednesday also gave out national security awards to his aides for helping broker historic normalisation agreements between Israel and multiple Arab nations. The National Security Medals went to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, senior adviser Jared Kushner, Middle East envoy Avi Berkowitz, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, and US ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) John Rakolta.
“Thanks to the efforts of these individuals, the region will never be the same as it finally moves beyond the conflicts of the past,” the White House said in a statement.
Trump Issues Slew of Pardons and Awards for Allies in Final Days of Presidency
With just a few weeks left in his term, Trump has moved swiftly to use his executive powers for lawbreakers who have been close allies, well-connected or adjacent to his family.
December 25, 2020
US President Donald Trump. SOURCE: THE VERGE