• Part two of Pardonpalooza just hit. Part one was yesterday.
On Wednesday, outgoing U.S. president Donald Trump gave out 26 more pardons, including to his 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, to Trump's longtime associate Roger Stone, to Jared Kushner's felon father Charles Kushner, and other longtime personal and political allies of the Trump family.
Comically corrupt.
Of 65 pardons and commutations Trump granted before today, "60 have gone to petitioners who had a personal tie to Mr. Trump or who helped his political aims," reports the New York Times:
One recipient of a pardon was a family member, Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Two others who were pardoned declined to cooperate with prosecutors in connection with the special counsel's Russia investigation: Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., his longtime informal adviser and friend.
They were the most prominent names in a batch of 26 pardons and three commutations disclosed by the White House after Mr. Trump left for his private club in Palm Beach, Fla., for the holiday.
Also on the list released on Wednesday was Margaret Hunter, the estranged wife of former Representative Duncan D. Hunter, Republican of California. Both of them had pleaded guilty to charges of misusing campaign funds for personal expenses.
Mr. Hunter was pardoned by Mr. Trump on Tuesday, as part of a first pre-Christmas wave of grants of clemency to 20 convicts, more than half of whom did not meet the Justice Department guidelines for consideration of pardons or commutations. They included a former Blackwater guard sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
More at The New York Times: Trump Gives Clemency to More Allies, Including Manafort, Stone and Charles Kushner
Previously on Boing Boing:
