Tag: pardon

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin says President Donald Trump is sending a message to Paul Manafort by saying a pardon for him is "not off the table," in an interview to the NY Post. #CNN #News

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In a startling break with Thanksgiving tradition, Donald J. Trump refused to pardon the White House turkey after claiming that it was working as a secret operative of the billionaire George Soros. A group of fourth graders from Bethesda, Maryland, who had gathered on the White House lawn for the annual turkey-pardoning ceremony appeared unprepared for the anti-Soros outburst that Trump unleashed on the Thanksgiving bird. “That turkey was sent by Soros to spy on me,” Trump said, angrily turning on the fowl. “A lot of people are saying this.” While the oblivious turkey pecked desultorily at the ground, an increasingly enraged Trump spewed a stream of conspiracy theories linking the feathered animal to global élites, election fraud in Florida, and Jim Acosta. Trump attempted to lead the fourth-grade class in a chant of “Lock It Up,” apparently directed at the Thanksgiving delicacy, but the students slowly backed away from him in silence. Tracy Klugian, one of the children who witnessed Trump’s meltdown, said that he found it “sad.” “I get that he’s upset about Mueller and the midterms, but he shouldn’t take it out on a turkey,” he said.

Donald Trump said on Friday that he may grant a posthumous pardon to Muhammad Ali, seemingly unaware that the great boxer’s conviction was overturned by the supreme court 47 years ago. Departing for the G7 summit in Canada, the president told reporters at the White House he was looking at “thousands of names” of people who could be granted clemency. He received a draft-evasion conviction in 1967 and was stripped of his world heavyweight title. “He was, look, he was not very popular then, certainly his memory is popular now,” Trump said. “I’m thinking about that very seriously, and some others.” Ali was sentenced to five years in prison but he appealed and in 1971 the supreme court overturned his conviction, finding that the justice department improperly told the draft board Ali’s stance was not motivated by his religious beliefs as a Muslim. Trump’s gesture is therefore meaningless. Ali’s lawyer, Ron Tweel, said: “We appreciate President Trump’s sentiment, but a pardon is unnecessary. Earlier this week, he also commuted the life sentence of a woman whose cause was championed by Kim Kardashian West. “The power to pardon is a beautiful thing,” Trump told reporters. “I want to do people who are unfairly treated like Alice [Marie Johnson].” Trump has also floated a possible pardon for TV personality Martha Stewart and potentially commuting the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted on corruption charges in 2011.

Rudy Giuliani backed claims on Sunday made in a newly-leaked memo by Donald Trump’s legal team that the president can’t be compelled to testify by a grand jury subpoena as part of the Russia investigation. That question was posed on Saturday when the New York Times published a January-dated letter from Trump’s lawyers to special counsel Robert Mueller arguing that he could “if he wished, terminate the inquiry, or even exercise his power to pardon”. But the political ramifications, Giuliani added, “would be tough. Pardoning yourself is another.” Ultimately, Giuliani told NBC’s Meet the Press, he thought Trump pardoning himself would be “unthinkable and probably lead to immediate impeachment”. “I think the political ramifications would be tough,” Giuliani told ABC’s This Week. “Pardoning other people is one thing, pardoning yourself is tough.” But Giuliani also appeared to want it known that if Trump used his power to pardon himself, and triggered a constitutional crisis, it would be in vain since there had been no obstruction of justice in the first place. “I mean, we’re leaning toward not,” Giuliani told ABC. Trump’s lawyers and White House press secretary Sarah Sanders previously denied the president had dictated the statement and only offered suggestions. On Sunday Giuliani, by turns, said that conflicting statements about the source of Don Jr’s statement were one reason he would not want the president, his client, to grant an interview to Mueller’s prosecutors. “I mean, this is the reason you don’t let the president testify,” he added.

Washington (CNN)Former US Attorney Preet Bharara said President Donald Trump's political allies are clearly receiving a message from his presidential pardons. "I don't know if he is trying to send a message, but they are clearly getting a message," Bharara, who is a CNN legal analyst, said Sunday in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union." Bharara added, "He's making it very clear he is prepared to pardon anyone for any reason without any review. It was suggested that he reviewed the case; I don't think Donald Trump did anything of the sort." The former New York federal prosecutor said that there's a specific process presidents should follow for presidential pardons "so people understand that that power is being exercised fairly and on the merits and not because of whim or spite or partisan advantage." Trump recently granted a full pardon to conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza, who pleaded guilty in 2014 to violating federal campaign finance laws, and floated the idea of pardoning Martha Stewart and commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence, both of whom appeared on "The Apprentice" reality TV series. "He decides in the moment to take a political action, and that is what he did in this case," Bharara told CNN on Sunday. "I think he is going to keep doing it." A Justice Department spokesman told CNN last week that Trump did not run D'Souza's pardon through the department's Office of the Pardon Attorney, which was also the case for Trump's controversial pardons of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in an investigation into leaking the identity of a CIA officer, and former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt in a case related to his hardline tactics with undocumented immigrants.

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—President Donald J. Trump made Vice-President Mike Pence watch him issue pardons for several hours to see how it is done, a White House source confirmed. According to the source, Trump pardoned a number of disgraced political figures and former reality-show cronies for the sole purpose of training Pence in the art of issuing pardons. After signing pardon after pardon while Pence looked on intently, Trump commanded the Vice-President to sign a “practice pardon” to prove that he “wouldn’t mess anything up,” the source said. Before trying his hand at issuing a pardon, Pence heaped praise on Trump for the pardoning demonstration he had just given. “Mr. President, as in everything you do, your mastery of pardoning has been a wonder to behold,” he said. “I pray to God that, if I am ever called upon to issue a pardon, I do it with one-tenth of the skill and grace you have just displayed.” “Stop sucking up and sign it,” Trump reportedly snapped.

Error 5 Mahathir's Return Adds Pressure to Malaysian Bonds Malaysian politician Anwar Ibrahim is a free man just one week after his coalition’s shock election win and after more than three years in jail. Still, while it clears the way for him to return to politics, it’s unlikely he will take over as premier anytime soon. He met with Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad -- his partner in the ruling Pakatan Harapan alliance -- and Anwar’s party plans a public celebration tonight. It’s a decision to be made by a team of leaders from Pakatan Harapan, with Dr M who is the chief steward in the entire process.” Anwar added he planned to rest and carry out some speaking commitments at universities. “I think I need that time, that space.” His release is a moment to celebrate for a group which labored in opposition for decades and faced constant pressure from those in office -- he’s been jailed twice on sodomy convictions and also for abuse of power. Mahathir, 92, promised during the campaign to stand aside for Anwar once he was pardoned but is now pushing back the potential timeline by a matter of years. “He has to take an outsider role, and give possible advice -- becoming an elder statesperson.” Mahathir has indicated any power shift will take time. There have been signs of tension in the four-party coalition in the election aftermath, including public squabbles over the way cabinet posts are decided. “He is leader of one of the coalition parties,” he said of Anwar. There will be no more special powers given, excepting as is given to ministers or deputy ministers or deputy prime ministers.” — With assistance by Isabel Reynolds, and Anisah Shukry

Malaysia's king has agreed to pardon a politician whose case has gripped national politics for two decades, says new PM Mahathir Mohamad. Anwar Ibrahim, once considered a potential future leader, was jailed on charges of corruption and sodomy after falling out with the government. But Mr Mahathir, the PM under which he was first jailed, just won an election on a pledge of freeing him. He has indicated he will hand power to Anwar within a few years. "It is going to be a full pardon which of course means that he should not only be pardoned, he should be released immediately when he is pardoned. Both he and Anwar were formerly in power, as part of the BN, as prime minister and deputy respectively. Though sodomy is illegal in conservative Muslim Malaysia people are seldom convicted for it, so his case was widely seen as an attempt by the government to remove a political threat. In 2004 his conviction was overturned and he led the opposition to unprecedented gains - though not victory - in the 2008 and 2013 general elections. It remains unclear when the pardon will be issued, and Mr Mahathir warned his supporters that the process of Anwar becoming an MP again so he can take on the leadership "might take a long time". Mahathir Mohamad, the autocratic strongman who turned on his chosen successor Anwar Ibrahim, is now allied with him and seeking his release, having deposed Najib Razak, another one-time Mahathir protégé.

Trump has engaged his power three times already. The lawyer for recently pardoned Scooter Libby said pardons like the one for her client make the President happy and give him "a thrill." Pardon 1: Joe Arpaio, controversial sheriff, immigration hardliner, birther Trump rewarded a political backer and criticized the justice system as making a mistake when he pardoned former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in August, sparing his longtime supporter a jail sentence for criminal contempt during Arpaio's time in office. Arpaio's specific crime was ignoring a court order to stop profiling Latinos. Trump spent much of 2016 saying Hillary Clinton should be in jail, but he gave Kristian Saucier a free pass. Trump has specifically used the case of Saucier, as recently as January, to call on his own Justice Department to go after Clinton. What might have further thrilled Trump about pardoning Libby is that he did it just days before James Comey's book was released -- the former FBI director was the man who authorized the special counsel in that case. Beyond breaking the seal on the pardon power much earlier in his presidency, publicly teasing them before carrying through, and so far using them for very political ends, Trump's pardons are also different because they have occurred one at a time. The idea of Trump doing something that neither Bush nor Obama would and being on the right side of a horrible law can't hurt Johnson's prospects. Political pardons are nothing new.

(CNN)Speculation surrounding President Donald Trump's motive to pardon Scooter Libby this week continues, as the special counsel probe could put some of Trump's allies in the hot seat. But if Trump did pardon Libby to send a political message, former US attorney Preet Bharara said Sunday that he thought that would be "kind of abusive." "It's true that the pardon power is something that the President can exercise in any way shape or form pretty much he wants," Bharara said on CNN's "State of the Union." Libby, who was chief of staff to then-Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted of perjury in 2007 in the investigation into the leaked identity of former CIA officer Valerie Plame. Special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald led the case that led to Libby's conviction. Fitzgerald was tapped by then-Deputy Attorney General James Comey, and the news of Libby's pardon came hours after excerpts from Comey's new memoir leaked, in which the ex-FBI director is highly critical of the President. Trump has repeatedly denied any collusion. Bharara said that there a lot of other people who might have deserved a presidential pardon. "Given how many thousands of people are out there -- and my office used to process these requests on a regular basis -- how many thousands of people are out there who may have been prosecuted in a way that was over aggressive, where charges were piled on, who want to get on with their lives in a way that maybe the President can help by issuing a pardon -- none of those people have gotten a pardon," he said. "But this person who the President doesn't know, who allows him to make a political statement and also to send a message as you suggest to people who are currently in the hot seat with respect to the Mueller investigation, I find it very difficult to come to any other conclusion than he's sending a message," he continued.