Flurry of Trump pardons follows lobbying by well-connected lawyers
President Donald Trump. Photo from Shutterstock.com.
President Donald Trump pardoned 73 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others late Tuesday in a move that favored some of his associates and supporters, including former chief strategist Steve Bannon.
Trump granted a full pardon to Bannon after he was charged with defrauding donors to an online crowdfunding campaign for the border wall, report the New York Times, the Washington Post, Politico and the National Law Journal. A White House press release is here.
Also pardoned was former Nixon Peabody partner David Tamman, according to the National Law Journal. Tamman was convicted for altering financial documents that were the subject of a federal investigation. Prosecutors had alleged that Tamman helped hide a Ponzi scheme by his client, John Farahi, the founder of NewPoint Financial Services. Tamman had been represented on appeal by Alan Dershowitz, a prof
Former Skadden associate is among 20 people granted clemency by Trump
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Among those pardoned by President Donald Trump on Tuesday is a former associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, who pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe of Russian election influence in 2016.
The associate, Alexander van der Zwaan, was sentenced to 30 days in prison in April 2018 for lying to investigators.
Trump pardoned 15 people in all and granted commutations to five others, report Law.com, the Washington Post, Politico and the New York Times. A White House press release is here.
Van der Zwaan had pleaded guilty in February 2018 to lying in connection with his Ukraine work as a lawyer for Skadden. The law firm was hired in 2012 by the Ukraine Ministry of Justice, with the assistance of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, to prepare a report on the trial of a former Ukraine prime minister who was a political rival to the man who was then the leader o