Trump's pardon largesse a boon for well-connected fraudsters
“On a personal level, it’s hard to hold any personal animosity or venom toward the individual,” Bhandari said. And many of the names on Trump’s last list were conventional and non-controversial selections, including relatively anonymous drug offenders seen as having rehabilitated themselves during long stays in prison. For instance, joining Cunningham on the pardon list was Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist. The pardon nullified the case while the trial was still months away, eliminating the prospect for any punishment for Bannon. In the final minutes of his term, Trump pardoned Al Pirro, the ex-husband of Fox News Channel host Jeanine Pirro, in a tax evasion case.
Trump expected to flex pardon powers on way out door
WASHINGTON – Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power. No, Mr. President, that would be a gross abuse of the presidential pardon authority,” Schumer said. Trump then featured Johnson's story in a Super Bowl ad and pardoned her during this year's Republican National Convention. He has participated in several meetings at the White House during Trump's term as officials brainstormed potential changes to the formal clemency process. “For those people that should be free," he said, Trump's friends-and-family approach to pardons is "a deep and real tragedy."
Trump's defiant help for Stone adds to tumult in Washington
FILE - In this Feb. 20, 2020, file photo, Roger Stone arrives for his sentencing at federal court in Washington. Roger Stone was targeted by an illegal Witch Hunt that never should have taken place, Trump tweeted. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Trump confidant, said Stone was convicted of a nonviolent, first-time offense and the president was justified in commuting the sentence. By commuting Stone's sentence, Trump evoked other controversial acts of clemency by his predecessors, though his was done in the height of an election year. Stone, a former Nixon aide, told the AP he expressed his gratitude to Trump in a phone call.