{"id":9403,"date":"2025-01-26T12:37:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-26T04:37:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=9403"},"modified":"2025-01-26T12:37:52","modified_gmt":"2025-01-26T04:37:52","slug":"trump-storms-washington-with-hundreds-of-pardons-and-he-might-not-be-done","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tingchao.xyz\/?p=9403","title":{"rendered":"Trump storms Washington with hundreds of pardons \u2014 and he might not be done"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Donald Trump granted only one pardon<\/a> during his first year in office when he last served as president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, just days into his second term, Trump has averaged one pardon for every few minutes he\u2019s been back in power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pardons and commutations have stood out in Trump\u2019s first week back in the White House, even as a flurry of executive orders covering everything from tech policy, diversity initiatives and the federal workforce have blanketed Washington. They have been a way for Trump, with a simple flourish of his pen, to reward groups of people who supported him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere were campaign promises that President Trump made,\u201d a Trump official said. \u201cThat\u2019s what you\u2019re seeing now. I\u2019m not sure you\u2019ll see rounds of pardons throughout [his term], but what I can say is it was important for him to keep his promises.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority came during Trump\u2019s first day in office, when he surprised even some of his own supporters and aides<\/a> by pardoning virtually every person charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol \u2014 including those convicted of committing acts<\/a> of violence against law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Trump didn\u2019t stop there. On Tuesday, he pardoned Ross Ulbricht<\/a>, a bitcoin pioneer who was sentenced to life in prison for creating and running Silk Road, a black market on the dark web that sold illegal drugs. Ulbricht\u2019s cause had been championed by libertarians, and Trump pledged to pardon Ulbricht during his campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next day, Trump pardoned<\/a> two Washington, D.C., police officers who were convicted for their roles in the death of a young man on a moped in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And on Thursday, the president pardoned 23 anti-abortion activists<\/a> one day prior to the March for Life, an annual anti-abortion demonstration. Their cause was championed by conservative lawmakers who argued that President Joe Biden\u2019s administration overreached in its prosecutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., was one of those advocates. He tweeted<\/a> Tuesday evening urging the president to quickly pardon the activists. On Thursday, just prior to Trump issuing those pardons, Hawley spoke directly with the president on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen we talked, he was familiar with the general situation already,\u201d Hawley said. \u201cIt\u2019s very fair to say he was up to speed on it. And we had a really good conversation that left me with a very distinct impression that he was going to do what he ultimately did do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Lauren Handy was one of the anti-abortion activists pardoned by Trump.\u00a9\u00a0Chip Somodevilla<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Hawley said he noted the timing of Friday\u2019s March for Life in his pitch to the president on why he should expedite the pardons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI just said, \u2018Listen, these folks have waited a long time,\u2019\u201d Hawley said. \u201cSome of them are quite elderly, and this would be a great thing to do now. He left me then with the distinct impression that he was going to move sooner rather than later, which he did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Presidents rarely use their king-like power of clemency in their first few days in office, typically saving the vast majority of the oft-controversial decisions until the very end of their term. Biden, whose White House touted<\/a> that he had offered far more measures of clemency than his predecessors for groups of people like nonviolent drug offenders, saved his most controversial pardons<\/a> for his final weeks in office, including pre-emptive pardons for some of his family members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his first term<\/a>, Trump issued only slightly more than two dozen pardons prior to losing the 2020 election. He issued dozens more during his final days in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s already broken with past presidents by doing so many in the first 48 hours,\u201d said Angela McArdle, chair of the Libertarian National Committee, which advocated for Ulbricht\u2019s pardon. \u201cIt\u2019s incredible. I mean, he has set a new precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, was released after spending the past three years in prison.\u00a9\u00a0Kayla Bartkowski<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Trump allies say not to expect a similar pardon spree in the coming weeks. But several others see an opportunity and want to promote their cause before a president who proclaimed \u201cI love freeing people,\u201d as McArdle recalled him saying in a conversation at Mar-a-Lago in December 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. plans to seek a meeting with Trump to deliver a list of proposed pardons compiled by various organizations, including the Congressional Black Caucus, former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. \u2014 one of the people his father wants Trump to pardon \u2014 said in an interview with NBC News on Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The younger Jackson, who served time for misappropriating campaign funds for personal use, sought a pardon from President Joe Biden but did not get one. Jackson suggested that if Trump meets with his father, it could be the 83-year-old civil rights leader\u2019s final visit to the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile Rev. Jackson strongly disagrees with the pardon granted by the president on Jan. 6 [offenses], Rev. Jackson acknowledges that \u2026 the president has an absolute right to pardon whom he chooses,\u201d the former congressman said. \u201cAnd Joe Biden had an absolute right to pardon only his family. And he had an absolute right to ignore everybody else.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biden was expected to grant pardons to at least several former elected officials after fellow Democrats had lobbied him to take such action, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among them were former members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Jackson, this person said. The Biden allies who pushed for them to receive clemency were stunned when he didn\u2019t grant it before leaving office; some of them viewed his inaction as selfish, given Biden made sure to issue pre-emptive pardons for members of his family minutes before Trump was sworn in as his successor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, one lawyer who represented several clients seeking clemency from Biden said part of their calculus was that being rejected by Biden could make their cases more appealing to Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Former Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., is also among those seeking clemency from Trump through unofficial channels. Menendez has used allies to get his case in front of the president to ask for a sentence commutation or pardon, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. Menendez sought and failed to obtain a pardon from Biden before he left office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menendez has been advised to ask Trump directly for clemency before his sentencing that\u2019s scheduled for Wednesday, according to one person familiar with his efforts. The crux of the former senator\u2019s argument would be that he has been politically targeted by the Justice Department like Trump believes he was, this person said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Menendez pleaded not guilty to federal corruption but was convicted in July. He resigned from the Senate in August and is facing potentially years in prison. Menendez\u2019s wife, Nadine Menendez, faces similar charges and has pleaded not guilty. Even before Trump won the November election, the former senator told people close to him that he may have a better chance of getting a pardon from him, NBC News has reported<\/a>, given his contentious relationship with Biden and his position that his prosecution was political.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, Menendez joined all Senate Democrats in voting to convict Trump during his two impeachment trials. He has reviewed Trump\u2019s clemency in 2020 for former Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois, who was serving a 14-year prison sentence after he was convicted on federal corruption charges, to help inform his efforts to receive one from the president as well, NBC News has reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advocates know to appeal to Trump\u2019s disdain for federal law enforcement, particularly after he was charged in multiple jurisdictions during Biden\u2019s time in office. When announcing his pardon of Ulbricht, Trump wrote on social media<\/a>: \u201cThe scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern day weaponization of government against me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump was first turned on to Ulbricht\u2019s case amid an effort to court libertarian support, as McArdle laid out, saying that Ric Grenell, who was recently tapped as one of Trump\u2019s special envoys, reached out to start a dialogue on how Trump could win this demographic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Jan. 6 defendants Gregory Purdy, Edward Jacob Lang and Robert Turner, celebrate their release outside the D.C. Central Detention Facility on Jan. 21.\u00a9\u00a0Roberto Schmidt<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

During her meeting at Mar-a-Lago, McArdle said that pledging to free Ulbricht from prison \u201cwould make a big impact.\u201d He ultimately promised to do so at last year\u2019s Libertarian Party convention<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI even talked with his staff \u2026 right after the inauguration, and they assured me that the president was going to deliver on his promise,\u201d McArdle said. \u201cAnd sure enough, it was like 36 hours after he\u2019d been sworn in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grenell and the White House did not return a request for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McArdle suggested another pardon that may be on the horizon: Roger Ver, a former California resident and bitcoin investor facing charges of fraud and tax evasion. Trump ally and confidant Elon Musk, the world\u2019s richest man, has taken up Ver\u2019s cause<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a formal process for receiving a presidential pardon as laid out by the Justice Department<\/a>. It involves submitting a petition through the Office of the Pardon Attorney, which then reviews the case before determining whether to elevate it to the president. But that process is not always followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hawley, however, said his sense is that \u201cthere\u2019s a fleet of lawyers who are working on\u201d the pardon cases that get before the president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI imagine his team of lawyers has spent a lot of the last two and a half months since his election working on these different things,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, to draft an executive order, you don\u2019t just do that in 10 minutes. You\u2019ve got to be very, very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A senior Senate GOP aide said that in his first few days, Trump \u201ckind of hit everyone\u201d he needed to with his offers of clemency, and it remains to be seen if there will be more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe got the pro-lifers,\u201d this person said. \u201cThey got the libertarians their guy. They got the J6ers their guy. I don\u2019t know if there\u2019s anyone left really who\u2019s a priority. But who knows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump granted only one pardon during his first year in office when he last served as president. Now, just days into his second term, Trump has averaged one pardon for every few minutes he\u2019s been back in power. 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