President Donald Trump speaks at a Make America Great Again rally at the Civic Center in Charleston, West Virginia.
Leah Millis | Reuters
President Donald Trump issued dozen of pardons on his last night at the White House, including one to his former campaign manager and ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon.
Others pardoned by Trump included great Republican fundraiser Eliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to acting as an unregistered foreign agent last fall, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who is serving a 28-year prison sentence for fraud And rapper Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to a gun charge last month.
Bannon, former head of the conservative news site Breitbart, was arrested with several co-defendants on federal charges in New York last year, but was still on trial in this case, where he was free for a $ 5 million loan.
He and the other defendants are accused of defrauding donors to a nonprofit group that allegedly intended to use the money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, a political obsession with Trump and many of his supporters.
In total, Trump granted pardons to 73 people and commuted 70 other people’s criminal convictions in what would likely be his final act of grace as President.
Trump did not apologize to himself or any of his adult children despite speculating he would, despite no pending federal criminal charges against either of them.
The pardons were the third major group of pardons Trump has given to Joe Biden, who is due to be inaugurated as president on Wednesday, since losing his election in November.
In December, Trump pardoned the gallery of an associated criminal, including his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Republican political agent and long-time Trump friend Roger Stone, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law Charles Kushner, and former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos.
Others Trump pardoned last month included four former Blackwater USA guards convicted of the murder of 14 unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007, disgraced ex-GOP Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and Philips Esformes, a Florida health facility owner convicted of prosecution said it was the largest healthcare fraud ever charged by the Justice Department.
Presidential pardons only apply to federal criminal convictions. Presidents do not have the power to excuse people for state crimes.
Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, is currently under criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
The investigation, which originally focused on how the company recorded hush money payments to two women who claimed to have sex with Trump – which denies their allegations – has since been expanded to include questions about how the Trump organization values real estate wealth.
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