Trump’s pardons target well-connected fraudsters
One of those not on ex-president’s list of largesse was Trump himself
WASHINGTON — A former congressman who pocketed millions of dollars in bribes from defense contractors. A Republican fundraiser who was paid handsome sums to illicitly lobby a presidential administration. An influential voice in conservative circles accused of duping donors who supported a border wall.
Donald Trump’s final batch of more than 140 pardons and sentence commutations, issued in his last hours as president, benefited an ignominious list of defendants whose swindles, frauds and public corruption made them unlikely candidates for executive clemency. The recipients included people who not only abused their own positions of power, but also leveraged well-placed connections to pursue pardons from a president willing to use his authority to bless patrons and friends.
“It wasn’t about draining the swamp. It was the swamp,” said Sanjay Bhandari, a former Justice Department prosecutor who in 2005 secured a guilty plea from Randy “Duke” Cunningham, the former California congressman who was pardoned early Wednesday, despite having accepted at least $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors.
To be sure, presidents have broad discretion in their use of the pardon power and many have exercised it, albeit sparingly, on defendants to whom they have personal or political ties. George H.W. Bush pardoned Reagan administration officials implicated in the Iran-Contra scandal, and Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive financier Marc Rich, whose ex-wife was a substantial donor.
It’s also the case that many of the names on Trump’s last list were non-controversial selections, including relatively anonymous drug offenders seen as having rehabilitated themselves during long stays in prison.
Even so, “Trump has had a much higher percentage of his pardons be the sort of well-connected, personally connected to him or to people close to him, kind of folks,” said Michigan State University law professor Brian Kalt, an expert on pardons.
There were also notable omissions from the clemency list, not least Trump himself.
Despite speculation that the president might pardon himself in the face of potential legal jeopardy once he leaves office, and even though he had claimed that he had the absolute power to give himself one, Trump apparently opted not to do so. Other allies, though, got a boost. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former chief strategist was one of them. He was accused of diverting over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself.
The pardon nullified the prosecution of Bannon while the trial was still months away, eliminating the prospect of any punishment.
Another recipient was Elliott Broidy, a major Trump fundraiser and former RNC deputy finance chairman. Prosecutors said Broidy collected millions of dollars in a lobbying scheme aimed at getting the Trump administration to drop an investigation into embezzlement from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund and to extradite a Chinese dissident wanted by the government in Beijing. He pleaded guilty last fall to acting as an unregistered lobbyist and was awaiting sentencing at the time of his pardon.
William “Billy” Walters, a prominent Las Vegas professional gambler who prosecutors said was worth millions and who was convicted in an insider trading case linked to pro golfer Phil Mickelson, had his sentence commuted by Trump. So did former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has served more than seven years of a 28-year sentence for corruption crimes.