President Donald Trump has pardoned former U.S. Rep. Michael Grimm, a New York Republican who resigned from Congress after a tax fraud conviction.
The pardon was disclosed Wednesday by a White House official who requested anonymity before an official announcement.
Grimm, a former Marine and FBI agent, pleaded guilty in late 2014 to underreporting wages and revenue at a restaurant he ran in Manhattan. He resigned from Congress the following year and served eight months in prison. Grimm tried to reenter politics in 2018 but lost a primary for his old district.
While he was in Congress, Grimm made headlines for threatening to throw a reporter off a balcony in the Capitol after the reporter asked about the long-running FBI investigation into his campaign finances.
�Let me be clear to you. If you ever do that to me again, I�ll throw you off this (expletive) balcony,� he told the reporter during the exchange, which was captured on video.
When the reporter pushed back, telling the then-congressman that it was a valid question, Grimm responded, �No. No. You�re not man enough. You�re not man enough. I�ll break you in half. Like a boy.�
After heavy criticism, Grimm said he was wrong for threatening the reporter and that �it shouldn’t have happened.�
The former congressman worked at the conservative news outlet Newsmax.
Last year, Grimm was paralyzed from the chest down after being thrown from a horse during a polo tournament.
In a short video posted on Grimm�s Facebook in January, the former congressman said, �little by little, I�m getting better,� and said he was working on getting more dexterity in his fingers and getting his legs to move. In March, a GoFundMe page that was set up for Grimm posted that he had been able to �withstand 4 minutes upright assisted on the tilt-table,� along with a picture of Grimm smiling.
(AP)
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A better approach would be to pardon everyone (regardless of party) convicted in a politicized prosecution (leaving open civil actions for actual damages), and propose a bi-partisan law banning all lawfare including selective prosecutions, allowing prosecutors or media to convict the person before the trial, or prosecutors forum-shopping for a good location to bring charges. The practice of both parties of politicizing the legal system only undermines public respect for the legal system