Trump issues round of pardons
Figures from Russia probe, contractors responsible for Iraq massacre, ex-GOP legislators to walk free.
WASHINGTON — In an audacious pre-Christmas round of pardons, President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to two people convicted in the special counsel’s Russia inquiry, four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress.
Among those pardoned was George Papadopoulos, who was a foreign policy adviser to Trump’s 2016 campaign and pleaded guilty in 2017 to making false statements to federal officials as part of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
Also pardoned was Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who pleaded guilty to the same charge in 2018. Both men served short prison sentences.
The Mueller-related pardons are a signal of more to come of people caught up in the investigation, according to people close to the president.
Trump recently pardoned Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who pleaded guilty twice to charges including lying to the FBI in connection with the Russia probe. Trump in July commuted the sentence of Roger Stone, who was convicted on a series of charges related to the investigation.
Trump’s pardon list also included four former U. S. service members who were convicted of killing 17 Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007, a massacre that left one of the most lasting stains on the United States of the war. One of them, Nicholas
Slatten, had been sentenced to life in prison. Slatten had been a contractor for the controversial company Blackwater.
The three former members of Congress pardoned by Trump were Duncan Hunter, who represented a San Diego County district in the House, Chris Collins of New York and Steve Stockman of Texas.
Hunter was set to begin serving an 11month sentence next month. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to one charge of misusing campaign funds.
Collins, an early Trump endorser, is serving a 26month sentence after pleading guilty to making false statements to the FBI and conspiring to commit securities fraud.
Stockman was convicted in 2018 on charges of fraud and money laundering and was serving a 10year sentence.
And Trump granted full pardons to two former Border Patrol agents whose sentences for their roles in the shooting of an alleged drug trafficker had been commuted by President George W. Bush.
Former campaign manager Paul Manafort’s allies say they hope Trump will pardon him.
Two others convicted in the Russia probe, Manafort’s deputy, Rick Gates, and the president’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, are seen as unlikely candidates for a pardon. Both cooperated with investigations into the president.