Reality TV stars, ex-lawmakers among beneficiaries of Trump’s questionable pardons

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - Since taking office on January 20, Donald Trump has aggressively cracked down on immigration, including revoking some student visas and increasing scrutiny of all visa applicants. — Reuters pic

WASHINGTON, June 8 — Reality TV stars. Former lawmakers. A sheriff. A nursing home executive. A drug kingpin.

What do they have in common?

They are among the Americans convicted of crimes who have received pardons from President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

And while US presidents have doled out questionable pardons in the past, Trump is doing so “in a bigger, more aggressive way with sort of no sense of shame,” said Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The pardon power has always been a little bit problematic because it’s this completely unconstrained power that the president has,” Roosevelt told AFP.

“Most presidents have issued at least some pardons where people look at them and they say: ‘This seems to be self-serving’ or ‘This seems to be corrupt in some way.’”

But Trump is doling out pardons “that look like they’re almost quid pro quo for financial donations,” Roosevelt said.

Among those receiving a pardon was Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive convicted of tax crimes and whose mother attended a US$1-million-per-plate fund-raising dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in April.

Other beneficiaries of Trump pardons include reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were serving lengthy prison sentences for bank fraud and tax evasion.

Their daughter, Savannah, is a prominent Trump supporter and gave a speech at last year’s Republican National Convention.

More than half a dozen former Republican lawmakers convicted of various crimes have also received pardons along with a Virginia sheriff sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking US$75,000 in bribes.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 as they sought to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

The next day, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence for running the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.

‘Just another deal’

Barbara McQuade, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Michigan, said Trump is not the first president to be accused of “allowing improper factors to influence their pardon decisions.”

Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton’s pardon of a commodities trader whose wife was a major Democratic donor and Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, and other family members all drew some criticism.

“(But) Trump is in a class by himself in both scope and shamelessness,” McQuade said in a Bloomberg opinion column.

“To him, pardons are just another deal.

“As long as a defendant can provide something of value in return, no crime seems too serious,” she said.

Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, in a letter to Ed Martin, Trump’s pardon attorney at the Justice Department, asked what criteria are being used to recommend pardons.

“It at least appears that you are using the Office of the Pardon Attorney to dole out pardons as favors to the President’s loyal political followers and most generous donors,” Raskin wrote.

Martin for his part has made no secret of the partisan nature of the pardons recommended by his office.

“No MAGA left behind,” Martin said on X after the pardon of the bribe-taking Virginia sheriff, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Lee Kovarsky, a University of Texas law professor, said Trump’s “pardon spree” opens up a “menacing new frontier of presidential power” that he calls “patronage pardoning.”

By reducing the penalty for misconduct, Trump is making a “public commitment to protect and reward loyalism, however criminal,” Kovarsky said in a New York Times opinion piece. — AFP