Dec 23, 2020
President Trump threatened to thwart the $900 billion bipartisan coronavirus relief package, which he called a “disgrace” in a video released on Twitter Tuesday night.
President Donald Trump: “I am asking Congress to amend this bill and increase the ridiculously low $600 to $2,000, or $4,000 for a couple. I am also asking Congress to immediately get rid of the wasteful and unnecessary items from this legislation and to send me a suitable bill, or else the next administration will have to deliver a COVID relief package. And maybe that administration will be me.”
Trump did not say whether he would veto the bill, which passed with a veto-proof majority. Top Democrats seized on Trump’s remarks Tuesday night to repeat their own calls for higher direct payments. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reminded Trump that Republicans blocked the move. Pelosi tweeted, “Democrats are ready to bring this to the floor this week by unanimou
HeadlineDec 23, 2020
President Trump issued 15 pardons and five commutations Tuesday, including pardons for four former Blackwater contractors involved in a massacre in Iraq, three corrupt former Republican lawmakers, two people convicted in Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting an undocumented immigrant.
The Blackwater guards included Nicholas Slatten, who was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder for his role in the 2007 Nisoor Square massacre, when he and other Blackwater mercenaries opened fire with machine guns and grenades on a crowded public space in Baghdad, killing 17 unarmed civilians, including women and children. The youngest victim was a 9-year-old named Ali Kinani. This is Ali’s father Mohammed speaking to Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley in a short documentary called “Blackwater’s Youngest Victim.”
By GUY DAVIES and BADER KATY, ABC News(LONDON and BAGHDAD) — When news broke that Mohammed Kinani’s son’s killers, Blackwater private military contractors hired by the U.S. government in Baghdad, were pardoned Wednesday by President Trump, Kinani said it was like losing his 9-year-old boy all over again. “I don’t know what I did to [.]
(Last Updated On: December 23, 2020)
The United Nations said Wednesday night it was deeply concerned by US President Donald Trump’s move to pardon four former Blackwater security contractors convicted of killing 14 Iraqi civilians in 2007.
“We are deeply concerned by the recent US presidential pardons for four security guards from the private military firm Blackwater who were convicted for killing 14 Iraqi civilians.
The UN Human Rights Office spokesperson, Marta Hurtado, said in the statement that “pardoning them contributes to impunity.”
Hurtado said the four individuals were given sentences ranging from 12 years to life imprisonment, including on charges of first-degree murder.
“By investigating these crimes and completing legal proceedings, the US complied with its obligations under international law. Victims of gross human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law also have the right to a remedy.
Trump s pardon of U.S. contractors convicted of Iraqi massacre is an injustice: lawyer
When U.S. President Donald Trump pardoned four security contractors who gunned down 12 unarmed Iraqi civilians, he stripped their families of justice and undermined the U.S. court system, says lawyer Gary Mauney.
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Posted: Dec 23, 2020 4:48 PM ET | Last Updated: December 23, 2020
Blackwater guards, from left, Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. On Tuesday President Donald Trump pardoned 15 people, including these four former government contractors convicted in a 2007 massacre in Baghdad.(The Associated Press and Reuters)
As It Happens7:17Trump s pardon of U.S. contractors convicted of Iraqi massacre is an injustice: lawyer