WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump has forgiven his former chief strategist Steve Bannon in a wave of pardons in the last hours of his term, which has benefited more than 140 people, including rappers, former members of Congress and other allies. yours as a family.
The last-minute order, announced early this morning, follows other waves of pardons granted in the last month to Trump collaborators convicted in the FBI investigation into Russia, as well as to his son-in-law’s father. Taken together, these actions highlight the President’s willingness, during his four years in the White House, to use his constitutional powers in ways that defy the convention and explicitly help his friends and supporters.
The latest list is full of more conventional candidates for such measures and whose cases had been supported by activists. A man who spent nearly 24 years in prison on charges of drugs and weapons, but who behaved exemplary behavior, his sentence was changed, as was a former sailor convicted in 2000 with a conviction for cocaine.
But the names of Trump’s allies stood out from the crowd.
In addition to Bannon, the allies of the pardoned Trump family include Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a plot to pressure the White House to drop an investigation into the robbery of a Malaysian investment fund. . and Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was charged in October with cyberbullying in a heated divorce.
Bannon’s case is particularly notable, as the prosecution against him is still in its infancy and there are months left before any trial. Beneficiaries of presidential pardons are usually considered to be people who have faced justice and spent at least some time in prison. The one granted to his former head of strategy cancels the process and de facto eliminates any possible punishment.
“Steve Bannon is pardoned by Trump after he tricked Trump supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised to pay for Mexico,” Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said on Twitter. “And if everything sounds crazy, it’s because He is. Thank God we only have 12 hours left in this pit of thieves. “
While other presidents have issued controversial pardons at the end of their terms, probably no other commander-in-chief has been so happy to use his leniency to benefit not only friends or acquaintances, but also celebrities and other sponsors. by his allies.
Today’s list includes a number of well-known defendants, including rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both convicted in Florida of possession of weapons. Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, has frequently voiced support for the president and recently met with him to address criminal justice issues. Death Row Records co-founder Michael Harris and New York art dealer and collector Hillel Nahmad were pardoned.
Rick Renzi, a former Arizona Republican congressman who spent three years in prison for corruption, money laundering and other charges, suffered the same fate; and Duke Cunningham, a former California representative convicted of accepting $ 2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Cunningham, who was released from prison in 2013, received a conditional clemency.
Trump also commuted the prison sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who spent nearly seven years behind bars for a carpet and bribe scheme.
Bannon has been accused of misleading thousands of investors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s stellar election promise to build a wall along the Mexican border. However, he allegedly diverted more than $ 1 million, paying a campaign official’s salary and personal expenses.
Bannon did not answer questions yesterday.
Trump has already pardoned a large number of associates and supporters, including his former campaign manager, Paul Manafort; Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law; his old friend and adviser Roger Stone and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.