FOR SALE: How Donald Trump Sold Pardons For Personal Gain

[babylonsister]

FOR SALE: How Donald Trump Sold Pardons For Personal Gain
Here's how Trump was able to turn the presidential pardon into a lucrative source of money.
By Gregg Barak — February 19, 2022


Donald Trump and his business entities profited from his time in the White House more than any president in the history of the nation. If the accounting of Trump’s presidential windfall is to be complete it must include a revenue stream that hasn’t gotten much attention. In Trump’s inimical and corrupt way he was able to turn the presidential pardon into a lucrative source of money.Trump also flouted the rules and norms surrounding the presidential pardon in a way never before seen.

The Constitution gives the President “the Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” It is silent about, and therefore, does not prohibit the president’s pardoning power from extending to those convicted of federal crimes on behalf of and/or in conspiracy with the president. As we all know Trump pardoned several loyal members of his gang including among the most notable recipients Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and Steve Bannon. To be specific, under the Constitution only federal convictions, military court martial decisions and convictions in Washington, D.C. are eligible for presidential clemency. These include pardons or full forgiveness of crimes, commutations or the merciful reduction of sentences, and reprieves or the temporary stay of a sentence.

To be considered for clemency applicants submit a notarized petition to the Office of the Pardon Attorney in the Department of Justice. The rules “tell pardon seekers to wait at least five years after their conviction or their release from prison, whichever is later before filing a pardon application.” The Trump administration repeatedly violated this DOJ custom. After evaluating such factors as the seriousness of the offense and the extent to which someone has accepted responsibility for their crimes, how a person has acted since conviction, and input from the U.S.prosecutor who handled the case weighs in, the pardon office makes a recommendation and forwards it to the deputy attorney general. In turn, the deputy AG makes a recommendation of its own and forwards it along with pardon office’s up or down recommendation to the White House for a decision. In many instances, this process was totally ignored because the Trump administration viewed it as too time-consuming and cumbersome which—to be fair—it probably is.

Other informal rules or customs that Trump violated are that pardons are usually given near the end of a president’s term in office and usually after the petitioner’s case has been fully adjudicated. In the case of the latter, one of Trump’s co-conspirators in deconstructing the state and assaulting the Capitol Steve Bannon had been arrested and indicted in August 2020 for “conspiring to swindle donors to a private fund to build a wall along the Mexican border, siphoning off more than $1million for personal and other expenses.” Steve was pardoned just before Christmas well before his case was scheduled for adjudication. It will be interesting to see how Steve’s three co-defendants fare at trial when the time comes.

snip//

The former executive-in-chief sold official forgiveness as if it were just another Trump-branded product. Opening bids for pardon consideration were auctioned off at $50,000. There were no guarantees. In fact, Parker Petit paid one of the largest figures—$750,000—out in mid-December to Matt Schlapp and his lobbying firm, Cove Strategies. This was done just days before Trump released his final pardons. It was denied. Petit had been a top Republican donor who served as Georgia finance chairman for Trump’s 2018 campaign. Cove Strategies had raised over $2.3 million for Trump in 2020. He was convicted of securities fraud in November 2020 and was facing up to 20 years in prison. Schlapp who is also chairman of the American Conservative Union had also been a frequent guest on Fox News. His wife, Mercedes Schlapp, worked for both the White House and the 2020 campaign. In December 2020, Trump appointed Schlapp to the trust fund board for the Library of Congress. In an article on Open Secrets Karl Evers-Hillstrom notes that this made Schlapp “one of the many Trump-connected lobbyists to land a government appointment from Trump while continuing to lobby"

more...

https://crooksandliars.com/2022/02/sale-how-donald-trump-sold-pardons

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Guess Trump didn't report that to the IRS last year . . . . .

[PatSeg]

2. Anything was for sale in the Trump White House

I cringe to think of all that will be uncovered and revealed in the coming years.

[colorado_ufo]

10. I hope the new administration counted the silverware when they took over.

[tavernier]

23. They did.

800 plastic spoons from McDonald’s. He preferred to shotgun the chocolate sundaes with his double bacon quarter pounders.

[colorado_ufo]

25. LOL!

[PatSeg]

26. Ha, ha, ha!!!

[2naSalit]

3. Hmm...

I wonder if there is any legal recourse for We the People on that.

[babylonsister]

4. Hopefully this is on that very long list. nt

[underpants]

5. Blagojevich

Went to jail for trying to sell a Senate seat...just saying

Oh and

Blagojevich appeared on season 9 of The Celebrity Apprentice in Spring 2010, asserting that he has the "skill and know-how to get things accomplished" on the series. Series star and producer Donald Trump praised Blagojevich's "tremendous courage and guts", and predicted that he would become one of the show's breakout stars.[123] Trump subsequently fired Blagojevich in the fourth episode of the season, which aired April 4, 2010.[124]

[CousinIT]

6. (same as he was gonna do with those classified docs he stole?) n/t

[GoCubsGo]

19. Beat me to it.

EVERYTHING is for sale with that ratbastard. He'll even sell his own country away for a buck. Don't be surprised if he sells his kids down the river for money, too.

[TigressDem]

7. Thing is most Americans don't know how much effort US puts into laws to prevent Gov't corruption....

So much of it began as "conversations among gentlemen" as in, "I know none of US would violate these but we don't know what future members seeking power might do with that power, so we need to make sure it can't be abused."

When the country was formed, an honorable man honored his word with a handshake and didn't need to be lawyered up to get through a day without going to prison for multiple breaches of ethics laws.

NOW we are lucky that most DEMS respect ethics laws they have had any reason to encounter and at least if they have signed an agreement have the basic intellect to understand that means they have given their word and should honor it.

To the REICH, people who honor agreements are suckers to be taken advantage of immediately and repeatedly.

[Irish_Dem]

8. A crime spree of epic proportions.

From the minute he was elected to the present.

[FakeNoose]

9. I've wondered about this, I figured he must have been getting paid somehow

Chump never does anything if he doesn't get paid.

How much did Kim Kardashian pay Chump for the pardon of Alice Marie Johnson?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44308143

[paleotn]

11. Reminds me of Ray Blanton in TN when I was a kid.

It got so bad that in '79, the new governor, ironically Lamar Alexander, was sworn in weeks early to stop the pardon for cash machine. It was crazy.

[spanone]

21. YEP, we moved to tennessee in 78 just when this was exploding....I also thought of Blanton....

when tfg was handing out pardons.

[L. Coyote]

12. Did #FailedCoupGuy Quid Pro Quo pardons for working on his coup?

[spanone]

13. ...K&R...

[Kid Berwyn]

14. Grifter Family Schlapp

Charming TV couple not.



Matt Schlapp didn’t lobby the Trump White House until his wife worked there

https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/matt-schlapp-lobbying-white-house/

[Mr. Ected]

15. I think we understand that every molecule in Trump's body is corrupt

And that he has indulged himself in 360 degrees of criminal activity over half a century's time.

If anyone knows of ONE THING that this man has done that wasn't either illegal or unethical, come forward now.

Otherwise, they need to re-open Alcatraz and make him the new sole inhabitant.

Gitmo for the kids.

Leavenworth for the rest of the gang.

Could America withstand an entire politically-connected clan from being sent away? All those voters. FOX. Right wing radio. Anger. Revenge. Watch out Democrats!

Fuck that shit. They can't try and punish us if we haven't committed a crime. Ask Hillary.

[SouthernDem4ever]

16. He'll just saying everyone is picking on him for political gain

that is his answer to everything he's done that is criminal.

[Laura PourMeADrink]

17. Here's a novel idea. DNC. Create simple ad of

Pardons and related $ for trump.

And simple ad showing emolument gains

[gratuitous]

18. "Informal rules and customs"

I think I see the problem right there. The Steve Bannon pardon, for example, is actually just a copy of George H.W. Bush's lame duck pardon-a-thon in the dead of night on Christmas Eve 1992. In that case, Bush decapitated the Iran/contra investigation, letting Caspar Weinberger, Dan Abrams and four others completely off the hook for their crimes, which were set to go to trial after the first of the year in 1993. According to the special prosecutor's final report, the trial was going to put the lie to Bush's contention that he was "out of the loop" on Iran/contra, and expose him to criminal liability for his part in that crime against humanity.

For some strange reason, that self-serving use of the pardon power never comes up in our liberal media.

[hedda_foil]

20. And of course Daddy Bush was advised to pardon his Iran Contra gang by the self same AG Barr

[not fooled]

22. And yet

a maggot neighbor I hadn't seen for a while rode by yesterday, giving us a chance to chat. After catching up on local news, eventually he got around to ranting that trump is just being hounded mercilessly over a bunch of made up nonsense.

He's in his 70s and I'm moving so I just made a few noncommittal grunts and left it. He's in the cult and his brain has gone around the bend. No recital of the lengthy list of crimes done by red don would make a dent in his adoration.

[RicROC]

24. Proactively, Dems should pass a law stating that former Presidents/family/staff

are not eligible for presidential pardons until x# of years (5?) have been served in the pokey.

The amount of years need to be longer than one presidential term.

[Blue Owl]

27. Lick Diarrhea Donny's gold toilet; get a pardon

Fuck that guy.