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A Convict Pardons Convicts [1]

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Date: 2025-01-23

Pardon me. That’s what I want: a pardon for anything I have ever done and immunity for everything I will do. I want a full, complete, and unconditional pardon and absolute immunity because if the U.S. Supreme Court can put Trump above the law, why not me or you?

Even Biden pardoned additional members of his family. Really. Does that mean that there is a Biden Crime Family, or is Biden’s paranoia justified because of Trump and the House Republicans? I’m talking about you, James Comer (R-Ky). After all, you went after President Biden beginning on January 11, 2023, with the goal of impeaching him because Trump told you to do it. You were also looking at his brother, James, and Hunter, always Hunter. You published a 300-page report of gibberish without a smoking gun, a gun, or even smoke. Are you done? Biden didn’t think so, given your January 17, 2025, letter to the incoming Attorney General to go after his brother, James Biden.

Did we forget that pardoning criminals is one of Trump’s favorite hobbies? In his first term, he pardoned a number of war criminals, including Army First Lieutenant Clint Lorance, Army Major Mathew Golsteyn, Navy SEAL Chief Petty Officer Edward Gallagher, and Blackwater Contractors—Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard.

Now, Trump has pardoned or commuted the sentences of all the January 6 criminals. “All” means everyone—including those Vice President J.D. Vance and Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi advised should not be pardoned. The initial plan was to exercise discretion in granting clemency, but as Axios reports, “as Trump's team wrestled with the issue, and planned a shock-and-awe batch of executive orders on Day 1, Trump just said: ‘F--- it: Release 'em all.’” (Source: https://www.axios.com/2025/01/22/trump-pardons-jan6-clemency) A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 58% of respondents opposed the president’s decision to pardon all January 6 convicts. And so, Trump’s miscalculations begin.

Trump’s pardon order begins, “This proclamation ends a grave national injustice that has been perpetrated upon the American people over the last four years and begins a process of national reconciliation.” (See https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/granting-pardons-and-commutation-of-sentences-for-certain-offenses-relating-to-the-events-at-or-near-the-united-states-capitol-on-january-6-2021/) Although Trump’s “process of national reconciliation” is a joke, he had to pardon all of these criminals because they are his criminals, because he is working very hard to rewrite history. These pardons and commutations are proof to many Americans that nothing happened on January 6th. If something did happen, it wasn’t very bad, despite all the video footage that everyone saw, including Trump who reveled in it.

At a Univision Town Hall on October 16, 2024, a man asked Trump about January 6th. Trump replied, “Nothing done wrong at all. There were no guns down there. We didn’t have guns. The others had guns, but we didn’t have guns. And when I say we, these are people that walked down—this was a tiny percentage of the overall which nobody sees and nobody, nobody shows. But that was a day of love.” (See https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgnxej1dn0o?utm_source=chatgpt.com). Now, if you understand what he said, good on you. Trump’s defense of these criminals may become common: “I didn’t commit a crime. It was an act of love. Call President Trump. He’s a convicted felon. He’ll explain it to you.”

Some Republicans are using their old friend, (im)moral equivalency: Biden pardoned Hunter and other family members so Trump can pardon all of the January 6th criminals. Some Republicans were offended, especially because Trump pardoned those charged or convicted of crimes against police, but many were tongue-tied. And how are they going to justify J6 criminals, now free, who are calling for retribution? The party of law and order is now the party of crime and disorder as Trump makes clear that violence supporting the Dear Leader is permissible, even encouraged.

In all of this, there is one unlikely American hero: Pamela Hemphill. She was arrested, pleaded guilty, served a prison sentence of 60 days, and just refused Trump’s pardon. Interviewed by the BBC, Hemphill said, “We were wrong that day. Accepting a pardon would only insult the Capitol police officers, rule of law, and, of course, our nation. I pleaded guilty because I was guilty, and accepting a pardon also would serve to contribute to their gaslighting and false narrative.” (Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cvged988377o).

In defending the J6 pardons of convicted criminals who assaulted police, Trump said, “I am a friend of police, more than any president who’s ever been in this office.” (See https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/trump-defends-pardons-rioters-suggests-proud-boys-place-117943642). Of course, there is an obvious exception: those police who defended the Capitol and wouldn’t let Trump stay in office in 2020.

Two major police groups, the Fraternal Order of Police, which endorsed Trump, and The International Association of Chiefs of Police issued a joint statement opposing the J6 pardons.

To prove his police credentials, Trump is considering pardoning two D.C. police officers. Trump said, “We are looking at two police officers, actually, Washington police officers, that went after an illegal and things happened and they ended up putting them in jail.” https://wtop.com/dc/2025/01/two-dc-police-officers-may-receive-a-pardon-after-convictions-related-to-a-murder-while-on-duty/ Officer Terence Dale Sutton and his commanding officer, Lt. Andrew Zabavsky, were convicted regarding the death of Karon Hylton-Brown on October 23, 2020. The victim was a young Black man and a U.S. citizen, who they chased for driving a moped without a helmet. What does Trump mean by “illegal,” driving a moped while Black?

Does this mean that Trump, a convicted felon, is only a friend of police who are also convicted felons? That’s a pretty exclusive group. The only group more exclusive is convicted felons elected to the presidency.

Unfortunately, the term “convicted felon” does not begin to capture Trump’s depravity, callousness, or brutality. While “mobster” comes close, Trump elevates that concept to a whole new level. Case in point: he just pardoned Ross Ulbricht, the founder of Silk Road, an infamous online marketplace for illicit drug trade and other illegal activities conducted via Bitcoin.

Ulbricht was sentenced to life in prison for crimes including distributing drugs online, conspiring to commit computer hacking, and money laundering. To grasp the magnitude of this pardon, it would be akin to Trump absolving someone like Jeffrey Epstein.

In rationalizing his decision, Trump declared, “The scum that worked to convict him were some of the same lunatics who were involved in the modern-day weaponization of government against me.” (Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-pardons-silk-road-founder-ulbricht-online-drug-scheme-2025-01-22/) Perhaps Ulbricht will be able to run Trump’s emerging cryptocurrency empire.

The politics of pardons reveal a stark reality about power, justice, and accountability in America. Pardons, meant to be acts of grace in response to genuine contrition, have become tools of division, gaslighting, and historical revisionism. Whether used to shield allies, rewrite narratives, or bolster political credentials, they now undermine the foundations of the rule of law. The notion of equal justice under the law has been a joke, but now Trump is shoving that reality in our faces. National reconciliation? —no, rejection and resistance, which is the necessary—R & R for four years.

Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,458 days

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