Forgiven, Bannon heads Trump’s 73 pardons
DONALD Trump used his last act in the White House to pardon a strategist accused of ripping off the former president’s own supporters.
In a blitz of pardons and commutations, he granted clemency to Steve Bannon, the architect of his successful 2016 campaign.
Mr Bannon had yet to face trial charged with funnelling $1million from a fundraising effort to build a wall on the border with Mexico. He is now in the clear.
Mr Trump waited until the 11th hour – 12.50am on Inauguration Day – before finally deciding on his list of 73 pardons and clemency for 70 others.
Sources said he mulled long into the night over the decision to pardon the man who turned on him when he was fired in 2017.
They said he and Mr Bannon spoke several times on Tuesday, with the ex-president insisting that it ‘wasn’t happening’.
However, Mr Trump appears to have been persuaded by recent shows of loyalty from the former aide. His officials said: ‘Mr Bannon has been an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen.’
Mr Trump also gave pardons to rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black. Lil Wayne, who was facing ten years in jail on gun possession charges, had waged a brazen social media campaign to get a pardon.
Kodak Black was serving a three-year prison term after pleading guilty to weapons charges in 2019. Anthony Levandowski, a former Uber executive, also won a reprieve. He was set to serve 18 months in jail for stealing trade secrets from Google’s selfdriving car operation.
A judge had called his case the ‘biggest trade secret crime I have ever seen’.
Ken Kurson, the former editor of The New York Observer and friend of Mr Trump’s sonin-law Jared Kushner, was pardoned for stalking and harassing three victims. The White House said the criminal investigation into Mr Kurson was politically motivated.
Corrupt politicians pardoned included Randy Cunningham, who was jailed for seven years for accepting $2.4million in bribes, and Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty last year to violating foreign lobbying laws. Michael Harris, the founder of rap label
Death Row Records, who has been in jail for 30 years, had his conspiracy to commit murder conviction commuted after lobbying from another rapper, Snoop Dogg. With less than an hour left in his presidency, Mr Trump announced one other pardon, that of Albert Pirro for tax fraud. He is the ex-husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
Missing from the list were WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and Joe Exotic, the star of the Netflix TV series Tiger King.
Mr Trump was reportedly talked out of pardoning himself, his family and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani on the grounds that it would make them look guilty.
He revoked a ban on officials lobbying for five years after leaving his administration, an order he signed on his eighth day in office under a pledge to ‘drain the swamp’.