President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a new wave of pardons for about 26 people and three commutations. The highlight of the pardons was those granted to former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, former US Congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, and four Blackwater guards involved in an Iraq massacre.
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard, were the four Blackwater guards convicted of killing innocent men and women in Iraq. About 30 witnesses had traveled all the way from Iraq to testify against them. The White House said members of Congress recommended their pardon.
Among the list of the pardoned was Alex van der Zwaan. Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison following Robert Mueller’s investigation. He had pleaded guilty to lying to investigators during a probe into the illegal foreign lobbying efforts of the Trump campaign.
Others included two Border Patrol agents sentenced to jail for shooting an unarmed immigrant and then concealing their crimes. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were sentenced to 11 years and 12 years in prison respectively, for their role in the 2006 shooting. Their sentences were initially commuted by President George W. Bush, CNN reports.
Others in the list were guilty of drug offenses and were expected to have been incarcerated for a long time. According to sources, Trump’s allies in Congress and others in the media were critical to the pardons issued by the president.
Former Rep. Steve Stockman, a Texan Republican, had his prison sentence commuted. Stockman had been sentenced to jail in Texas, following his conviction on almost two dozen felonies involving fraud and money laundering. He had served two years out of his 10 years sentence. The White House gave the reason for the commutation of his sentence, saying that Stockman had an underlying health condition that placed him at risk of COVID-19.
Alfonso Costa was also pardoned. He is a dentist who was sentenced to jail on account of healthcare fraud. Alfred Lee Crum was sentenced in 1952 for illegally distilling moonshine; Otis Gordon was convicted of possession with the intent to distribute; Alfred Lee Crum, for illegally distilling moonshine in 1952; Weldon Angelos was sentenced to jail for 55 years for distributing marijuana and in possession of a firearm; Philip Lyman is a county commissioner in Utah also pardoned.
Trump commuted the sentences of Philip Esformes, guilty of paying bribes; the president also commuted the sentences of three women – Crystal Munoz, Tynice Nichole Hall, and Judith Negron. They were convicted of drug-related crimes. The commutation of their sentences was made on the heels of a recommendation by Alice Johnson, a beneficiary of Trump’s clemency.
Papadopoulos and Van der Zwaan were guilty of lying to investigators during the Mueller investigation. Papadopoulos spent less than two weeks in prison while Zwaan, a son-in-law to the Ukrainian-Russian billionaire German Khan, spent almost a month in prison. He was subsequently deported to Europe in 2018.
Other key players from the Mueller investigation to have been pardoned included Paul Manafort and adviser Roger Stones.
Congressman Hunter was sentenced to 11 months in prison and three years of supervised release after misappropriation of campaign funds to the tune of $200,000. According to the White House, many members of Congress had lobbied for his release.
Congressman Collins was serving a 26-month sentence for a white-collar crime. He had vigorously insisted he was innocent only to plead guilty last year, regretting his actions.
Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was also pardoned. He had been convicted and sentenced to two years for false tax returns, witness retaliation, and lying to the Federal Elections Commission.
Trump, has in two days, granted clemency to up to 50 persons, prompting widespread criticisms from Democrats who accused him of granting pardons to corrupt people while covering his tracks, Fox News writes.
Source: theguardian.com
