Shortly before the end of his term in office, the resigned US President Donald Trump pardoned other loyal companions.
Among them were the former chairman of his campaign team, Paul Manafort, and his longtime confidante Roger Stone. The 26 pardons announced by the White House on Wednesday evening (local time) included real estate entrepreneur Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s advisor and son-in-law Jared Kushner. Trump had only announced a series of controversial pardons on Tuesday.
Manafort had been sentenced to several years in prison for tax evasion and bank fraud. Trump had already issued a prison sentence in July for Stone, who was convicted of Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Stone was sentenced to more than three years in prison in February for, among other things, false testimony and obstruction of justice. Kushner, on the other hand, was jailed for two years, among other things for tax evasion. He has served his sentence, but with the pardon his criminal record is subsequently deleted.
Republican Trump was defeated by Democrat Joe Biden in the November 3rd election, but will remain president with full powers until January 20th. Former presidents such as Democrats Bill Clinton and Barack Obama used the right to issue pardons right up to their last days in office. At that time, too, there were always controversial cases – however, it was rather not about people who had been convicted of offenses that were directly connected with the president or his election campaign.
It was only on Tuesday that Trump pardoned his former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos. As a result of the Russia investigation, he was sentenced to two weeks’ imprisonment for false testimony to the Federal Police FBI. He also pardoned another person who had been convicted in connection with Mueller’s investigation, Alex van der Zwaan. At the end of November, Trump had already pardoned his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn. Flynn had only been a security advisor at the White House for a little over three weeks in 2017. Later, in the course of the investigation into the Russia affair, he confessed that he had lied to the FBI Federal Police.
Trump always condemned the Russia investigation as a witch hunt. Special investigator Mueller investigated whether there were agreements between the Trump camp and Russia in the 2016 election campaign.
In the US media, there is also constant speculation as to whether Trump could ultimately pardon himself for crimes under federal law as a precautionary measure. Constitutional lawyers disputed whether the president’s pardon would be sufficient – Trump would take an unprecedented step. There are also rumors that Trump is said to have spoken to advisors about a precautionary pardon for his three eldest children, Donald Trump Junior, Eric and Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner.
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