21 Feb 2020 2:41 pm
Inexcusable Pardons
Trump is publicly abusing his pardon power to send a message to his henchmen that their silence will be rewarded.
Let’s start in 1982.
That’s the year when Willie Simmons wrestled a man to the ground and stole a wallet containing $9.
After a trial that lasted 25 minutes, he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
He told Beth Shelburne, who tweeted his story in December, that she was his first visitor “since 2005 after his sister died.”
38 years after stealing $9, Willie Simmons is still in prison.
Compare that to the case of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevitch, as described by Stephanie Sarkis in Forbes: “Blagojevich was the subject of a five-year FBI investigation titled ‘Operation Board Games,’ where hundreds of hours of recordings were made of Blagojevich committing corrupt acts.
He was found guilty in federal court on 18 counts of corruption, including trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
He received a 14-year prison sentence, which he started serving in 2012.”
One of the crimes Blagojevitch was convicted for was the attempted extortion of a $50,000 donation from the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital or else the Governor would “rescind an $8 million contribution” made by the state.
Trump claims 8 years was excessive for Blago’s 18 counts of public corruption.
In commuting his sentence, Trump said Blagojevitch, “served eight years in jail—a long time. Many people disagree with the sentence.”
Blagojevitch was one of 11 people who received pardons or commutations from Trump yesterday.
Most of the 11, including “friends of Rudy” Bernie Kerik and Michael Milken, were guilty of the worst forms of government corruption and white-collar crime.
As Stephanie Sarkis writes in Forbes: “Trump is normalizing pardons and white-collar crime so it won’t be such a surprise to the public when he pardons people like Roger Stone.”
In normal times, the case of Willie Simmons—a black man punished not just excessively, but egregiously and monstrously for a minor crime—would represent exactly the kind of situation that might attract Presidential clemency.
Willie Simmons hadn’t had a visitor in nearly 15 years before Beth Shelburne showed up to interview him and tell his story.
Meanwhile, Trump is watching Fox News—and gobbling up Blagojevitch-sized “donations”—prior to making his decisions about who to pardon.
In making those decisions, Trump is publicly abusing his pardon power to send a message to the public that corruption is the new normal—and a message to his own associates that their continued silence about Trump’s personal crimes will soon be rewarded.
https://thedailyedge.substack.com/p/d37 ... 3e30fbe1d2
Trump is publicly abusing his pardon power to send a message to his henchmen that their silence will be rewarded.
Let’s start in 1982.
That’s the year when Willie Simmons wrestled a man to the ground and stole a wallet containing $9.
After a trial that lasted 25 minutes, he was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.
He told Beth Shelburne, who tweeted his story in December, that she was his first visitor “since 2005 after his sister died.”
38 years after stealing $9, Willie Simmons is still in prison.
Compare that to the case of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevitch, as described by Stephanie Sarkis in Forbes: “Blagojevich was the subject of a five-year FBI investigation titled ‘Operation Board Games,’ where hundreds of hours of recordings were made of Blagojevich committing corrupt acts.
He was found guilty in federal court on 18 counts of corruption, including trying to sell Barack Obama’s Senate seat.
He received a 14-year prison sentence, which he started serving in 2012.”
One of the crimes Blagojevitch was convicted for was the attempted extortion of a $50,000 donation from the CEO of Children's Memorial Hospital or else the Governor would “rescind an $8 million contribution” made by the state.
Trump claims 8 years was excessive for Blago’s 18 counts of public corruption.
In commuting his sentence, Trump said Blagojevitch, “served eight years in jail—a long time. Many people disagree with the sentence.”
Blagojevitch was one of 11 people who received pardons or commutations from Trump yesterday.
Most of the 11, including “friends of Rudy” Bernie Kerik and Michael Milken, were guilty of the worst forms of government corruption and white-collar crime.
As Stephanie Sarkis writes in Forbes: “Trump is normalizing pardons and white-collar crime so it won’t be such a surprise to the public when he pardons people like Roger Stone.”
In normal times, the case of Willie Simmons—a black man punished not just excessively, but egregiously and monstrously for a minor crime—would represent exactly the kind of situation that might attract Presidential clemency.
Willie Simmons hadn’t had a visitor in nearly 15 years before Beth Shelburne showed up to interview him and tell his story.
Meanwhile, Trump is watching Fox News—and gobbling up Blagojevitch-sized “donations”—prior to making his decisions about who to pardon.
In making those decisions, Trump is publicly abusing his pardon power to send a message to the public that corruption is the new normal—and a message to his own associates that their continued silence about Trump’s personal crimes will soon be rewarded.
https://thedailyedge.substack.com/p/d37 ... 3e30fbe1d2