President Trump on Tuesday night used his last dregs of presidential power to benefit friends and allies, granting last-minute clemency to 143 people, including former White House strategist Steve Bannon.
These kinds of pardons would be considered corruption in other countries.
I really thought he would resign with 20 minutes to go so Pence could be #46 and pardon the Trump Crime Family at just before the end.
Evidently, there was some last minute paperwork in the last-minute Pardon Palooza - cash to be counted, and wire transfer completions to offshore accounts to be checked - so they ran out of time, and Pencie (Pensy?) doesn’t get his moment of infamy.
Some will go out and buy a gun again.
others will set up a charity to pay themselves
old habits are hard to give up
Guess who didn’t get a pardon: Brian Kolfage, Bannon’s co-defendant. With Bannon pardoned, Kolfage doesn’t even have anyone to flip on now.
You knew he would pardon Bannon. Last chance to share your pick for music for Biden Inauguration here:
https://forums.talkingpointsmemo.com/t/inauguration-theme-songs/202759
Trump pardoned Broidy to SHUT HIM UP.
Broidy knows all about the Playboy Bunnies and forced abortions, the Russian Money laundering, and most importantly: Trump’s perversions and criminal activities connected to Jeffery Epstein.
Broidy and Bannon held the most damaging information on Trump, so he pardoned them.
The rest were window-dressing, ego-stroking, and a big “Fuck-You” to the country and all those he deemed: Not Sufficiently Loyal.
Remember, Trump does not do ANYTHING that is not blatantly TRANSACTIONAL. He is the ultimate “What’s in it for ME?” person.
I never understood why Pence would go along with such a scenario. It may have helped him with the most hardcore of the base and absolutely no one else. His best move has always been to just let things play out and see where things stand in a couple of years. There’s a strong possibility that even some of Trump’s most ardent fans become disillusioned with him over the course of the next few years.
I’m not at all surprised by who he did pardon, but I’m pretty surprised that he didn’t pardon himself, his kids, Rudy, or a number of others. He’s really just leaving with a whimper.
Bannon may well have violated state not-for-profit laws, so Kolfage could get a little revenge by ratting him out on those crimes, even if it won’t necessarily help him with the feds.
He could no longer trust Pence to pardon him after he sent a deranged, foaming-at-the-mouth, seditious mob to the Capital to HANG HIM.
Even someone as obsequious a toady as Pence has a sense of self-preservation and would not forgive THAT.
One consideration is that if pencid is president for even a brief time, he still gets all the ex-president bennies ($200k annual pension, an office, a fat travel allowance).
Truthfully, I agree with you. I am just so happy today that my Full Snark kicked in. (And I wanted to use the phrase PardonPalooza).
I get that, but I think Pence has hoped all along that he would end up with those bennies anyway by winning the presidency in 2024. Pardoning Trump would end those hopes immediately.
What you are talking about? Corruption is something that happens in shitholes countries run by people with high levels of melanin in the skin.
What no blanket pardon for the morons patriots that Trump ordered to storm the Capitol building?
I Really Don’t Care-Do You? Particularly this one.
Any idiots sending money to anyone to help build this wall…didn’t need the money in-the-first-place. Good that they got fleeced.
These are the types of FOOLS who would send money for a Prayer Cloth to magically get Trump reelected another 4 terms.
That is making me very happy. You know these dopes are in total disbelief that their savior has utterly abandoned them.
Will someone please think of that poor Texas realtor who flew to the insurrection in a private jet? No pardon, but in her heart she doesn’t feel like she broke the law!
I suspect that by the close of business today, some pissed-off U.S. Attorneys will have passed along mountains of evidence against people like Bannon and Broidy to any number of State Attorneys General. There’s nothing uniquely federal about the kinds of fraud that Bannon pulled off, for example. Where did the defrauded donors live? Pick a State - any State.
Poor Joe Exotic. But what a windfall for a certain Fort Worth limo company.