Blackwater Guards Get Christmas Pardon From Trump
Four employees of the security firm Blackwater have been pardoned just in time for Christmas by President Donald J. Trump. The four guards were convicted of a massacre of civilians in Iraq while they were providing security for State Department employees. Another win for President Trump in pardoning these four men, but there is much more to the story.
The four security guards are Paul Slough (Army), Nicholas Slatten (Army), Dustin Heard (Marines), and Evan Shawn Liberty (Marines) and are all prior service and were employed by Blackwater. Blackwater was hired by the State Department to provide security in Iraq. While the State Department does have 2500 members in its own Diplomatic Security Service, it is more cost effective to hire out for additional security. That is how these four men ended up in Iraq at that time.