One day after pardoning four Blackwater mercenaries and three corrupt Republican congressmen, President Donald Trump issued another round of pardons, including Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, and his son-in-law’s father.
Convicted in the Eastern District of Virginia on eight counts of financial crimes, including five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to disclose his foreign bank accounts, President Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort also pleaded guilty in the D.C. District Court to conspiracy to defraud the United States and witness tampering. On Wednesday, Trump issued a full presidential pardon to Manafort.
A White House press statement claims, “President Trump has issued a full and complete pardon to Paul Manafort, stemming from convictions prosecuted in the course of Special Counsel Mueller’s investigation, which was premised on the Russian collusion hoax. Mr. Manafort has already spent two years in prison, including a stretch of time in solitary confinement—treatment worse than what many of the most violent criminals receive. As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history. As Mr. Manafort’s trial judge observed, prior to the Special Counsel investigation, Mr. Manafort had led an ‘otherwise blameless life.’ Since May, Mr. Manafort has been released to home confinement as a result of COVID-19 concerns.”
Convicted on one count of obstruction of a congressional investigation, five counts of making false statements to Congress, and tampering with a witness, Trump’s former political advisor Roger Stone received a full and unconditional pardon on the same day. In addition to physically threatening a witness during a federal investigation, Stone’s emails also revealed that he threatened to abduct the witness’s dog if he continued to cooperate with prosecutors.
According to the White House press release, Trump “had previously commuted Mr. Stone’s sentence in July of this year. Mr. Stone is a 68-year-old man with numerous medical conditions. Due to prosecutorial misconduct by Special Counsel Mueller’s team, Mr. Stone was treated very unfairly. He was subjected to a pre-dawn raid of his home, which the media conveniently captured on camera. Mr. Stone also faced potential political bias at his jury trial. Pardoning him will help to right the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation.”
Trump also granted a full pardon to Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. In 2004, Kushner pleaded guilty to 16 counts of assisting in the filing of false tax returns, one count of retaliating against a cooperating witness, and one count of making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. Kushner completed serving his sentence in 2006.
One day after issuing a pardon to
corrupt California congressman Duncan Hunter, Trump granted a full pardon to Duncan’s
wife, Margaret Hunter. After Margaret Hunter pleaded guilty to conspiracy to
defraud the United States, former Rep. Duncan Hunter pled guilty to stealing
$250,000 in campaign funds. In August, Margaret Hunter was sentenced to eight
months of punitive home detention to be served as part of three years of
probation.
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