WASHINGTON — The White House announced President Donald Trump was pardoning or granting clemency to 11 individuals on Tuesday – raising eyebrows and even drawing condemnation from members of his own party over some of the recipients.
Drawing the most outcry was Trump’s commutation of the prison sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was ordered to serve 14 years in prison in 2011 for soliciting bribes for the appointment to fill President Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat, as well as extortion charges related to a children’s hospital and race track.
Blagojevich’s actions spurned near-unanimous bipartisan outrage at the time, and he was impeached on a 114-1 vote in the Illinois House and 59-0 vote in the Illinois Senate.
Trump has mused about granting clemency Blagojevich – who wrote an op-ed in January supporting Trump during the impeachment process – in the past. After the pardons and commutations were announced on Tuesday, Trump described Blagojevich’s sentence to reporters as “ridiculous,” according to CBS News.
But even members of his own party weren’t swayed. All five members of Illinois’ Republican congressional delegation released a statement Tuesday calling Blagojevich “the face of public corruption in Illinois:"
“We are disappointed by the President’s commutation of Rob Blagojevich’s federal sentence. We believe he received an appropriate and fair sentence, which was the low-end of the federal sentencing guidelines for the gravity of his public corruption convictions. Blagojevich is the face of public corruption in Illinois, and not once has he shown and remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters. As our state continues to grapple with political corruption, we shouldn’t let those who breached the public trust off the hook. History will not judge Rod Blagojevich well.”
Other names on the list of Tuesday’s pardons drew eyebrows as well – particularly in the still-recent wake of the president’s impeachment on charges of abuse of power for withholding military aid to Ukraine over concerns about “corruption.”
Of the 11 people granted clemency Tuesday, seven were convicted of crimes either directly or indirectly related to corruption or fraud:
- David Safavian – Convicted of perjury in the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal;
- Bernard Kerik – Convicted of taking an unreported, interest-free $250k loan from an Israeli billionaire while George W. Bush’s Interior Minister of Iraq;
- Rod Blagojevich – Impeached and convicted for corruption and abuse of power for soliciting bribes for the appointment of Barack Obama’s vacant U.S. Senate seat while governor of Illinois;
- Michael Milken – The “Junk Bond King,” indicted on 98 counts of racketeering and fraud, convicted of six counts of securities fraud and tax violations;
- Edward J. DeBartolo Jr. – Convicted of paying a $400k bribe to Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards (who was himself convicted of racketeering);
- Judith Negron – Convicted of laundering Medicare profits to pay kickbacks as part of a larger scheme to defraud the federal government of $87.5 million by falsifying mental health records;
- Paul Pogue – Convicted of scheme to avoid paying $473,000 in income taxes.
The remaining four – Angela Stanton, Crystal Munoz, Tynice Nichole Hall and Ariel Friedler – were convicted of participation in a stolen vehicle ring (Stanton), drug crimes (Munoz and Hall), and, in Friedler’s case, hacking into competitor’s servers to steal business secrets.
This isn’t the first time Trump has drawn criticism for his use of his powers of executive clemency.
His very first pardon, in August 2017, went to former Maricopa County sheriff Joe Arpaio, who was convicted of criminal contempt of court for ignoring a federal court’s injunction on “immigration round-ups.” Trump pardoned Arpaio, who had been an early and vocal supporter of his presidential campaign, before he was sentenced in federal court. The pardon included “any other offenses” that might have arisen from the case.
In April 2018, Trump pardoned Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney during the George W. Bush administration. Libby was indicted on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements to a grand jury in connection with the outing of covert CIA officer Valerie Plane in 2003. He was convicted on four counts and sentenced to 30 months in prison in June 2007. President Bush commuted his sentence the following month, but did not issue a pardon at the time.
Undoubtedly Trump’s most controversial acts of clemency to-date were granted to three U.S. servicemen accused of war crimes: Lt. Clint Lorance, Maj. Mathew Golsteyn and Chief Edward Gallagher.
Lorance was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in 2013 for ordering his soldiers to open fire at three men on a motorcycle while deployed in Afghanistan. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison. In November, Trump granted Lorance a full pardon.
Golsteyn was also charged with murder after he killed an Afghan civilian who he claimed was a bombmaker for the Taliban. Trump pardoned Golsteyn in November before the case went to trial.
Trump’s intervention in the Gallagher case drew the most backlash by far. Gallagher, a Navy SEAL, was accused of fatally stabbing a captive Islamic State militant while deployed in Iraq. Gallagher was acquitted of murder, but convicted of posing with a corpse. As a result of the conviction he was demoted from chief petty officer to 1st class petty officer, until Trump intervened in November and ordered his rank restored.
The fallout over Trump’s decision resulted in the firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer and condemnation from the members of Gallagher’s SEAL unit who turned him in.
Gallagher has since been invited to visit with the President and First Lady at their Palm Beach resort, Mar-A-Lago, and has taken to social media to call out and name the former teammates who turned him in.