President Trump has decided to pardon his former chief strategist Steve Bannon in a last-minute decision made only hours before he is scheduled to depart the White House for a final time.
Bannon’s pardon was especially notable given that the prosecution was still in its early stages and any trial was months away. Whereas pardon recipients are conventionally thought of as defendants who have faced justice, often by having served at least some prison time, the pardon nullifies the prosecution and effectively eliminates any prospect for punishment.
Bannon has been charged with duping thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s chief campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, he allegedly diverted over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself.
“Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said on Twitter. “And if that all sounds crazy, that’s because it is. Thank God we have only 12 more hours of this den of thieves.”
(AP)
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2 Responses
The boss pardons the underboss. Corrupt criminals all!
Charges are one thing. Facts are another. The facts are as follows. An on-line legal “charity” was set up to collect money to pay for a wall. It announced that all proceeds of the collection would go to the wall. But after having collected the money, the court ruled that it is illegal to donate money to the federal government for a specific project (as opposed to the general treasury). So the charity e-mailed all donors asking if they were willing to re-direct their donation (for things like, say, lobbying for the wall). Nearly all donors e-mailed back their agreement. Those who failed to e-mail back an agreement were refunded in full. So in this second round, money had to go for expenses (such as lobbying). The politicized government hacks then obfuscated the facts so as to drain all players in this charity of their money and their freedom through a false linking of the original promise (to donate all the money to wall) with the final outcome (where the money had to be spent on the named expenses). The prosecution did not do this because it expected the courts to actually find the defendants guilty. This was simply persecution to silence them.