Joe Biden. This is rotten to the core, Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said of the latest pardons, which were announced after Trump departed the White House for his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Sasse s office, in issuing his six-word statement, said Trump had exercised his constitutional power to issue pardons to another tranche of felons like Manafort and Stone who flagrantly and repeatedly violated the law and harmed Americans.
Manafort, 70, was among the first in Trump s inner circle to face charges that were brought on by special counsel Robert Mueller s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
Manafort, who was convicted of crimes related to his consulting work in Ukraine, thanked Trump on Twitter for the pardon, which comes months after he won an early release from a prison sentence of more than seven years due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
Others who received pardons included two former Republican congressmen who admitted committing financial-related crimes.
Trump also commuted all or some of the criminal sentences of five other people, as the president faces his last month in office.
One of those people, south Florida health-care facility owner Philip Esformes, was sentenced in September 2019 to 20 years in prison for what prosecutors said was the largest health care fraud ever charged by the Department of Justice. Esformes, 52, will now be freed from prison because of Trump s action.
Trump, who has been harshly critical of Muller s investigation into his 2016 campaign and its contacts with Russians, pardoned his former campaign foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos, who had been convicted of making false statements during that probe.
and arranged to discuss routine business. president trump will grant a full pardon to scooter libby. he was chief of staff to vice president dick cheney. he was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying to the fbi about leaking the identity of valerie plame. george w. bush granted the pardon. president trump released a pardon against joe arapaio. and now to syria. the white house says there is no final decision on how to respond to the apparent gas attack on civilians in eastern ghouta. president trump and prime minister theresa may have vowed in a phone call to deter further use of chemical weapons in the region. cnn s nick paton walsh has more.
attorney/client privilege. sources say president trump s legal team have pulled back on the interview with special counsel robert mueller. they state he is too conflicted to be interviewed. they are reviewing if the president should talk to mueller at all. they were meeting to discuss the testimony. they say the meeting with rod rosenstein is just a routine meeting to discuss business. among the talk of the comey book and white house investigation, president trump will grant a full pardon to scooter libby. libby was chief of staff to then vice president dick cheney. he was convicted of lying to the fbi over the identity of valerie plame. president trump released a pardon against joe arapaio. the arizona sheriff convicted of
there s some loose ends from the rally that we should wrap up. joe arapaio. he s a loose end. he s a loose end. he may end up pardoning him. if he does so at any other point, what s that s going to do? it will create a storm inside the political world for republicans who have to sort of justify and account for it the president s ability to pardon. he is do it on his own. i suspect when he does, it will be friday night at 4:00 and that will be the weekend. what did joe arapaio saying there will be a government shut down if the border wall isn t built. take a listen. it would risk a government shut down to force funds to make that happen. what do you think of that? it s great. no wonder donald trump likes