Trump to pardon his pals... but not himself
He’ll spend last day ‘handing clemency to shamed doctor and rappers’
DONALD Trump will use his final full day in power today to issue 100 pardons to white- collar criminals, rappers and a prominent eye doctor, it was claimed last night.
But insiders said Mr Trump will not look to pardon himself or his family from any charges they may face in the future.
It is thought aides have persuaded the President that pardoning himself would ‘make him look guilty’, something he is adamant he is not. He has also been advised against issuing a blanket pardon for his supporters who smashed their way into the Capitol building on January 6.
Last night, sources said the President’s list was ‘flexible’ and while it was not thought to include WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wanted by the US on hacking charges, it could offer clemency to Steve Bannon, Mr Trump’s former adviser facing fraud accusations over millions of dollars for the border wall with Mexico.
Other names in the frame include two rappers: Lil Wayne – who is facing ten years in prison on gun charges – and Kodak Black, in jail for similar offences. Another possible recipient is Dr Salomon Melgen, an eye doctor from Palm Beach who was jailed in 2018 for a £55 million medical fraud. Melgen was handed a 17-year senpardoned. tence for dozens of counts of health care fraud after he gave elderly patients unnecessary eye injections and laser blasts on their retinas, which prosecutors compared to torture, just so he could bill for them.
Mr Trump may be interested in Melgen because he is seen as a wealthy and influential figure in south Florida, where the President intends to live when he leaves the White House tomorrow. ‘Everything is a transaction,’ a Trump insider told CNN. ‘He likes pardons because it is unilateral. And he likes doing favours for people he thinks will owe him.’
It is not unusual for a departing president to issue pardons. Bill Clinton granted clemency to his brother Roger over decade-old drugs charges on his final day. Lil Wayne, who has had six UK top ten hits, has been brazen about his support for Mr Trump on social media in the hopes of being In December 2019, police boarded his private jet in Miami and found a gold-plated Glock pistol, ammunition, cocaine and heroin.
The rapper, whose real name is Dwayne Carter, met Mr Trump to talk about criminal justice reform and tweeted that the President will ‘get it done’. Black is serving 46 months in jail for firearms possession and said in a tweet that he would donate $1 million (£737,000) to charity if the President pardoned him.
The President is also said to be considering granting clemency to Albert Pierro, who worked on Mr Trump’s property deals before being convicted of tax fraud. John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, was told that if he paid Mr Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani $2 million (£1.47 million), he could get a pardon, the New York Times reported.
Discussions are said to be under way about a pre- pardon for Mr Giuliani, who told the Washington Capitol mob to engage in ‘trial by combat’. He is also under investigation by New York authorities for his dealings with foreign influences.
‘People he thinks will owe him’