In late December 2020, Trump issued a wave of pardons that included four former Blackwater contractors responsible for the Nisour Square massacre. After 7 years of proceedings, they had been found guilty of a 2007 shooting that left 17 dead and 20 others wounded. An FBI investigation determined that 14 of the 17 dead were unarmed and unjustifiably killed.
Pardoned war criminals Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. AP
The United Nation’s human rights office said in response that the pardons were themselves a violation of international law, and could contribute to the normalization of such crimes.
Michael Flynn is a retired United States Army Lieutenant General who served as National Security Advisor for Trump from January to February 2017.
Retired United States Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn / Wikipedia
As part of the wider Mueller probe into Russian election interference, a phone call from 2016 was unearthed between Flynn and Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. After speaking with Trump’s Presidential Transition Team, Flynn had reached out to Kislyak after Obama’s passing of Russian sanctions as punishment for 2016 election interference. Flynn urged Russia to refrain from retaliatory measures, as Trump was already President-elect and could eventually undo the sanctions. The following day, the Russian government announced they would not retaliate. Trump tweeted praise for the decision:
Great move on delay (by V. Putin) – I always knew he was very smart!
In his recounting of the phone call to the FBI, Flynn denied anything substantive was discussed, including sanctions. Nonetheless, Trump asked Flynn for his resignation in February 2017. He had served as National Security Advisor for a record 24 days.
Trump still defended Flynn, claiming that his lies to the FBI were not about anything illegal, and so he should not be prosecuted for them.
I had to fire General Flynn because he lied to the Vice President and the FBI. He has pled guilty to those lies. It is a shame because his actions during the transition were lawful. There was nothing to hide!
Flynn was charged with perjury for his false explanation to the FBI, and in December 2017, pleaded guilty.
Flynn had also failed to register as a foreign agent for lobbying work he had done on behalf of the Turkish government. Through his Flynn Intel Group Inc, an organization that provides intelligence services to businesses and governments, Flynn worked to defend Turkish hardliner President Recep Erdoğan from anti-government elements. He also failed to disclose income from Russian companies in his financial disclosure forms.
Trump had been warned about Flynn’s conflicts of interest at least 6 separate times, including by Obama during the post-election transition. Obama had himself fired Flynn in 2014.
Despite having pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, sentencing was deferred multiple times until May 7, 2020, when the Justice Department announced that it would be dropping all charges. The explanation provided in the motion to dismiss was that “Mr. Flynn’s statements were never ‘material’ to any FBI investigation.”
Trump defended the move, claiming that Flynn, and by extension himself, had been unfairly targeted by the Obama administration:
He is an innocent man. He is a great gentleman. He was targeted by the Obama administration and he was targeted in order to try and take down a president and what they’ve done is a disgrace and I hope a big price is going to be paid. A big price should be paid. There’s never been anything like this in the history of our country. What they did, the Obama administration did, is unprecedented, never happened, a thing like this has never happened before in the history of our country. And I hope a lot of people are going to pay a big price, because they’re dishonest crooked people, and they’re scum. I say it a lot, they’re scum. …Treason, it’s treason.
Throughout Flynn’s legal troubles, Trump has repeatedly defended him over Twitter:
Mike Flynn should ask for immunity in that this is a witch hunt (excuse for big election loss), by media & Dems, of historic proportion!
So General Flynn lies to the FBI and his life is destroyed, while Crooked Hillary Clinton, on that now famous FBI holiday “interrogation” with no swearing in and no recording, lies many times…and nothing happens to her? Rigged system, or just a double standard?
Blagojevich was convicted of a pay to play scheme where he tried to sell one of Illinois’ US Senate seats, and was sentenced to 14 years. Blagojevich, who had appeared on Celebrity Apprentice, had served 8 years.
Trump alleged that the sentence was unfair because of its length, and because the investigation was conducted under FBI leadership that also investigated Russian election interference, saying, “It was a prosecution by the same people — Comey, Fitzpatrick — the same group.”
JUST IN: Pres. Trump says he has commuted former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's sentence, calling it a "tremendously powerful, ridiculous sentence," and claiming "it was a prosecution by the same people, Comey, Fitzpatrick, the same group." https://t.co/HH71d2cc41pic.twitter.com/03011c270V
In a 2007 trial, the former Vice President Cheney chief of staff was was found guilty of four felony counts of perjury and obstruction of justice regarding the leak of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity.
Irving “Scooter” Libby. Wikipedia
Though President Bush refused to pardon him at the time, Trump did so in 2018. Some political commentators theorized that this was to indicate Trump’s willingness to provide legal cover to allies amid the investigation into Trump’s own obstruction of the Mueller probe into Russian election interference.
D’Souza, who served as policy analyst in the Reagan administration, is a prolific conservative commentator and author. He is known for such works as The Big Lie: Exposing the Nazi Roots of the American Left where he makes the academically fallacious claim that Nazism was leftist and that modern American liberals draw their ideology from Nazism. He has also created conservative documentaries, such as the critically panned film 2016: Obama’s America.
Dinesh D’Souza. www.dineshdsouza.com
D’Souza’s past commentary includes defending conditions at prison Abu Ghraib, in which multiple Iraqi prisoners were tortured, claiming it to be comparable to typical Middle Eastern hotels. He was condemned by liberal and conservative commentators alike for mocking the survivors of the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
In 2014, he pleaded guilty to making $20,000 in illegal contributions to the New York Senate campaign of Wendy Long, who ultimately lost to Senator Kirsten Gillibrand. Trump pardoned him of the crime in 2018.
The former Arizona sheriff had become infamous for running Tent City, known for its harsh conditions and being what Arpaio himself referred to as “a concentration camp.” The resources put into detaining immigrants also sapped county resources, leading to a backlog of various other violent crimes.
Arpaio was convicted of contempt for violating a judge’s order preventing him from detaining immigrants based on racial profiling and their legal status. Though he was unlikely to serve any jail time, Trump issued a pardon. The pardon was controversial in how it eschewed tradition, including any layers of review or even a formal application by Arpaio.
I am pleased to inform you that I have just granted a full Pardon to 85 year old American patriot Sheriff Joe Arpaio. He kept Arizona safe!
Arpaio later ran for US Senate, but lost the primary. In an interview during his campaign, he seemed to be unaware that acceptance of a pardon is tantamount to an admission of guilt, per the US Supreme Court finding in Burdick v. United States.
The soldier, Army 1st Lt. Michael Behenna, had captured the prisoner in a raid where an arms cache was also discovered. The prisoner was held by military intelligence in connection to a roadside bomb that had killed two soldiers. No evidence was found connecting the prisoner to the bomb, and he was ordered released. While returning the prisoner, Behenna claimed that he sought to question him further. He stripped the prisoner of his clothes and shot him.
Behenna was convicted of murder and sentenced to 25 years, and received parole after 5 in 2014. Trump’s pardon removes all prior restrictions from his parole.
One soldier, Maj. Mathew L. Golsteyn, killed an unarmed Afghan that he suspected of being a bomb-maker. He was convicted of second-degree murder.
The other, 1st Lt. Clint Lorance, gave orders to open fire on unarmed Afghan civilians, resulting in two deaths. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison.
Neither intervention was welcomed by military leaders. Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned that this would undermine the military code of justice.
Trump made the comment to the Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan during an April 2019 visit to the border at Calexico, California. It was not clear if the comment was a joke.
Kevin McAleenan was later chosen to serve as acting Homeland Security Secretary. He resigned from the post on October 11, 2019.
Former Acting United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan. Wikipedia
In 2020, Miles Taylor, a former Department of Homeland Security official, confirmed that Trump promised pardons to anyone who would illegally shut down the border.
Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher allegedly stabbed to death an unarmed prisoner of war. He was acquitted of the murder, but was found guilty in 2017 of posing with the corpse in photographs.
Prosecutors asserted that this was part of a pattern of behavior. They stated that fellow SEALs had grown so alarmed over his killing of civilians that they tampered with his sniper rifle to make it less accurate, and fired warning shots at civilians so they would flee before Gallagher attacked them. One fellow SEAL noted, “You could tell he was perfectly OK with killing anybody that was moving.” Another SEAL said of Gallagher, “The guy is freaking evil.”
Nevertheless, Trump allowed Gallagher to retain his SEAL Trident, an insignia which recognizes an individual as part of the elite special forces unit, and lent his vocal support. Despite Trump’s intervention, Navy military leaders still want Gallagher removed from the SEALs.
Congratulations to Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher, his wonderful wife Andrea, and his entire family. You have been through much together. Glad I could help!
