by Binoy Kampmark / December 23rd, 2020
A flurry of them has been expected, and just prior to Christmas, US President Donald Trump waved his wand of pardon with vigour. On December 22, the president issued fifteen pardons and five commutations. The choices so far have been, to put it mildly, problematic.
The power to pardon can be found in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, a provision which states, in part, that the President “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” That most eminent of judicial heads Chief Justice Marshall described a pardon as “an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual, on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed.”
Trump Pardon of Security Contractors Sparks Outrage in Iraq
President Donald Trump listens during an event on Operation Warp Speed in the Rose Garden of the White House, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
24 Dec 2020 The Los Angeles Times | By Nabih Bulos, Chris Megerian and Tracy Wilkinson
AMMAN, Jordan It was around noon in Baghdad on Sept. 16, 2007, when “Raven 23,” a four-SUV convoy and tactical support team for the private military company Blackwater approached Nisour Square.
Blackwater guards jumped out of the vehicles to stop traffic for a U.S. diplomatic team. At 12:08 p.m., Nicholas Slatten, the team’s sniper, began firing at a white Kia sedan.
Trump s pardons for Blackwater guards met with outrage, disgust
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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump depart the White House on Wednesday on a trip to spend the Christmas holiday at the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. Photo by Chris Kleponis/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 24 (UPI) The move by U.S. President Donald Trump to pardon and free four private security guards who killed more than a dozen Iraqi civilians in 2007 has been met with outrage from the victims families and many others.
In a new round of pardons Wednesday night, Trump excused Blackwater Worldwide guards Dustin Heard, Evan Liberty, Nicholas Slatten and Paul Slough. They were found guilty in 2014 of launching the attack, unprovoked, at Baghdad s Nisour Square 13 years ago which killed 14 civilians, including two children, and injured 17 others.
Trump’s Pardons for the Festive Season
DEC 24, 2020
A flurry of them has been expected, and just prior to Christmas, US President Donald Trump waved his wand of pardon with vigour. On December 22, the president issued fifteen pardons and five commutations. The choices so far have been, to put it mildly, problematic.
The power to pardon can be found in Article II, Section 2, Clause 1 of the US Constitution, a provision, which states, in part, that the President “shall have Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment.” That most eminent of judicial heads Chief Justice Marshall described a pardon as “an act of grace, proceeding from the power entrusted with the execution of the laws, which exempts the individual, on whom it is bestowed, from the punishment the law inflicts for a crime he has committed.”