Pardon Me, Mr. Trump
Presidents can do things at the end of their terms that they’d get criticized for earlier.
Donnie issued 237 pardons to imprisoned felons, 144 of them on his last night in office. Pardons are supposed to be reviewed by the Justice Department’s Office of the Pardon Attorney. Donnie bypassed that entirely and if they weren’t happy about it, they could try to contact him at Mar-a-Lago.
The “Get Out of Jail Free” card went to Trump cronies and campaign workers like Paul Manafort, Roger Stone. Michael Flynn, and Steve Bannon. Donnie even granted Kim Kardashian’s clemency request for drug offender Alice Johnson. If a Kardashian claims you are innocent, you must be. Look at O.J. Simpson. Of course, Donnie only pardoned Alice after she praised this leadership in a video shown at the 2020 Republican National Convention.
Donnie also used his “end of term” free-hand to re-institute the death penalty for Federal prisoners. There were no Federal executions for seventeen years until Donnie killed off thirteen prisoners, six of them after he lost the “rigged” election in November, 2020. Sore loser there, Donnie. Why not take it out on Death Row prisoners?
The reason why there were no Federal executions since 2003 was a Justice Department opinion that lethal injection was “cruel and unusual punishment” in violation of the 8th amendment. Some prisoners flop around in their restraints for fifteen minutes until their lungs fill with fluid and they suffocate. Those Justice Department “snowflakes” deemed that “cruel and unusual”.
Donnie got Attorney General William Barr to ignore the previous opinion and to issue execution orders. Six of the thirteen were Black and one was Native American. One was a White woman. Blacks, Native Americans, and White Women didn’t vote for Donnie anyway.
Donnie claimed that he will be a dictator flouting the rules “only on his first day in office”. Based on what he did during the last days of his previous term, I doubt it. He will flout the rules every damn day.
By Ed Dufton
