{"id":4106,"date":"2020-12-29T12:57:27","date_gmt":"2020-12-29T12:57:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=4106"},"modified":"2020-12-29T12:57:27","modified_gmt":"2020-12-29T12:57:27","slug":"trump-pardons-corrupt-members-of-congress-and-allies-caught-in-russia-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=4106","title":{"rendered":"Trump pardons corrupt members of Congress and allies caught in Russia investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>\n\n&#8220;a flurry of pardons and commutations \u2014 largely to a mix of political cronies and allies, from people caught in former special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia investigation to corrupt ex-members of Congress.&#8221;<br>&#8230;<br>&#8220;The president has used his pardon powers to the benefit of political allies before. He recently pardoned his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Prior to that, Trump granted reprieves to adviser Roger Stone and former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who endorsed and campaigned for Trump.Harvard professor Jack Goldsmith&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2020\/12\/22\/us\/politics\/trump-pardons.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">estimated<\/a>&nbsp;88 percent of Trump\u2019s pardons and commutations have gone to people with personal or political ties to Trump. The latest pardons \u201ccontinue Trump\u2019s unprecedented pattern of issuing self-serving pardons and commutations that advance his personal interests, reward friends, seek retribution against enemies, or gratify political constituencies,\u201d Goldsmith told the Times.&#8221;<br>&#8230;<br>&#8220;Past presidents have also used their pardon powers for friends and allies. Former President Bill Clinton triggered controversy when he issued&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/president-clintons-pardons-january-2001\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than 100 pardons<\/a>&nbsp;on his last day in office, including to his half-brother and to Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was a Clinton donor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These longstanding problems have led some activists to call for reform of the pardon process, fashioning it to be less a tool of political and personal favors and instead a means to criminal justice reform.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/12\/23\/22197066\/trump-pardons-russia-investigation-republicans-george-papadopoulos-duncan-hunter-chris-collins\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.vox.com\/2020\/12\/23\/22197066\/trump-pardons-russia-investigation-republicans-george-papadopoulos-duncan-hunter-chris-collins<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;a flurry of pardons and commutations \u2014 largely to a mix of political cronies and allies, from people caught in former special counsel Robert Mueller\u2019s Russia investigation to corrupt ex-members of Congress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The president has used his pardon powers to the benefit of political allies before. He recently pardoned his former national security adviser, Michael Flynn. Prior to that, Trump granted reprieves to adviser Roger Stone and former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who endorsed and campaigned for Trump.<br \/>\nHarvard professor Jack Goldsmith estimated 88 percent of Trump\u2019s pardons and commutations have gone to people with personal or political ties to Trump. The latest pardons \u201ccontinue Trump\u2019s unprecedented pattern of issuing self-serving pardons and commutations that advance his personal interests, reward friends, seek retribution against enemies, or gratify political constituencies,\u201d Goldsmith told the Times.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Past presidents have also used their pardon powers for friends and allies. Former President Bill Clinton triggered controversy when he issued more than 100 pardons on his last day in office, including to his half-brother and to Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was a Clinton donor.<br \/>\nThese longstanding problems have led some activists to call for reform of the pardon process, fashioning it to be less a tool of political and personal favors and instead a means to criminal justice reform.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[221,933,170],"class_list":["post-4106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-donald-trump","tag-pardon","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4106"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4107,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4106\/revisions\/4107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}