Trump wipes his slate clean

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WASHINGTON: At a campaign event shortly before the November election, President Trump gave a response that best explains the pardons announced Monday. Asked about his supporters’ riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, at a Univision town hall, he said, “There were no guns. We didn’t have guns.”

For starters, the statement was wrong; At least 180 people have been charged with “entering a restricted area with a dangerous or deadly weapon,” including guns, knives, clubs, baseball bats and chemical sprays, according to the Justice Department. But it’s the pronoun — “we” — that gives Mr. Trump’s game away. By forgiving the rioters, he was in every sense forgiving himself.

The president promised repeatedly during the campaign that he would pardon the “J6 hostages,” but he was vague about the details. It has become clear that Trump decided to go big. He pardoned the majority of the 1,600 arrested, including those who attacked police officers. (About 140 police officers were injured during the riot.) Additionally, Trump ordered the dismissal of all pending cases, including those of defendants charged with violent crimes.

Simply put, this means that in a few days, on January 6, 2021, no one in the Capitol will be in jail or facing any kind of criminal conviction. The boys, who were pardoned after serving a 22-year sentence for conspiracy to mutiny, have already been released from their sentences.

The recipients of the pardon now join Trump himself on January 6 as former defendants who stand clear for their actions that day. (After his victory in November, the Justice Department indicted him on Jan. 6 on charges of conspiring to overturn his 2020 loss by filing fraudulent voter slates.)

There are no checks or balances on the president’s pardon authority. Neither a court nor Congress can reverse the amnesty process. It is the provision of the Constitution that derives most directly from the authority of the British Monarchy.

Because presidents exercise such unfettered discretion in granting pardons, these measures provide useful insight into their true character. In his final days in office, President Joe Biden used pardons to undo his political history.

As a senator, he was a leader in the tough-on-crime program of the 1990s, which contributed to the era of mass incarceration. As a form of penance, he issued amnesties to 2,500 people who had received “disproportionately long sentences” for non-violent crimes.

Biden tried to block Trump’s promised legal assault on his allies, with pardons for Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley and others the new president had vowed to retaliate against. Also, in his final days, Biden’s oft-stated love for his family turned into an obsessive protectiveness.

In December he pardoned his son Hunter (after repeated denials) and then, in his final hours in office, issued pardons to five family members with little or no chance of being investigated for a crime. is

Trump’s January 6 pardon underscores the differences between the two men. As Biden built a cocoon around his family and a handful of allies, Trump reciprocated his entire movement. Biden defends, Trump’s offense.

Trump established this pattern in his first year in office. Joe Arpaio was the longtime elected sheriff of Arizona’s Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix. He was a notorious anti-Hispanic bigot, with a special interest in creating harsh and degrading prison conditions, especially for undocumented immigrants.

Arpaio was also a leading spokesman, as was Trump, for the lie that Barack Obama was not born in the United States and was therefore ineligible to be president. In 2017, Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt for failing to comply with court orders to stop racial profiling.

While he was awaiting sentencing, on August 25, 2017, Trump announced in a tweet that Arpaio was an “American patriot” who “kept Arizona safe!” He issued the first pardon.

After Arpaio, Trump pardoned Dinesh D’Souza and Conrad Black. D’Souza was a right-wing provocateur (who became a 2020 recusal) who was convicted of making fraudulent campaign contributions to a Republican Senate candidate in New York.

In a political gesture, Trump pardoned military personnel accused of war crimes in Afghanistan. For example, Lieutenant Clint Lawrence was serving 19 years in prison for ordering the killing of two unarmed Afghan villagers.

Major Matthew Golstein was awaiting trial, accused of the planned assassination of a suspected Taliban bomb maker. Trump pardoned him and later brought him on stage at one of his political fundraisers. The Jan. 6 pardon was not the first pardon Trump has granted to violent criminals. Courtesy: The New York Times