Trump pardons former campaign chairman Paul Manafort

President Donald Trump on Wednesday issued a second tranche of Christmas week pardons and commutations, including his 2016 campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, adviser Roger Stone and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law Jared Kushner.

All told, Trump issued 26 pardons and three sentence commutations.

In 2018, an Alexandria, Virginia, jury found Manafort guilty of five counts of tax fraud, two counts of bank fraud and one count of failure to disclose foreign bank accounts. The counts involved practices unrelated to Manafort’s work for the Trump campaign or alleged collusion with Russia investigated by former special counsel Robert Mueller.

“As a result of blatant prosecutorial overreach, Mr. Manafort has endured years of unfair treatment and is one of the most prominent victims of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American history,” Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement.

After serving two years of his 7.5 year sentence, Manafort, 71, was released to home confinement because of COVID-19.

Trump also pardoned Stone, whose 40-month sentence Trump commuted in July so that Stone, convicted of five counts of false statements and witness tampering, would not have to report to prison.

Charles Kushner served two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in 2004 to multiple counts of tax evasion and related charges.

Calls for investigation

“Congress should investigate these pardons and determine when they were first discussed with the recipients, particularly given Trump’s tweet about Manafort after his plea deal,” said Aditi Juneja, counsel of the left-leaning Protect Democracy.

Can President Donald Trump pardon politically-connected convicted felons and get away with it? In a word, yes.

The presidential pardon power, found in Article II, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, empowers presidents to commute the sentences of or pardon federal offenders. The only check on that power may be that the use or misuse of the authority can enhance or tarnish their legacies.

On Tuesday, Trump announced a round of 15 pardons and five commutations for federal offenders with political connections — including George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan, who both pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators involved with Mueller’s Russian probe. Many saw the move as the beginning of Trump pardons for one-time aides convicted in federal court.

Critics slammed what they saw as the partisan and self-serving nature of Trump’s mercy.

“Hours before heading off to Mar-a-Lago, Trump issued a grab bag of pardons to corrupt politicians who supported him, convicted murderers who worked for a close ally of his, and those who lied to cover up for him,” the DNC War Room railed in a statement. The references were to George Papadopoulos, Alex van der Zwaan, three former GOP House members convicted on corruption charges and four military contractors convicted of killing civilians in Iraq in 2007. “So much for ‘draining the swamp.’”

Plenary power

But all they can do is complain.

“At the end of the day, the criticism falls on deaf ears,” said attorney Brad Blakeman, who served as senior staff under President George W. Bush. “The average citizen is tuned out and the president has just days in office. I think it’s really much ado about nothing.”

“The reason the founders gave such broad powers to the president is to right wrong,” Blakeman said. Some will make sense to observers, others “you can shake your head at.”

If there is no legal way to stop a pardon once it has been given, public reaction can make an executive regret it.

On his last day in office, President Bill Clinton pardoned fugitive Marc Rich, who had fled to Switzerland to avoid prosecution on federal charges of fraud, tax evasion, racketeering and illegally trading oil with Iran. Outrage followed.

Editorial writers denounced the outgoing president’s decision to reward a billionaire who avoided prosecution after his ex-wife donated generously to Clinton causes and the Democratic Party. And Rich wasn’t the only questionable beneficiary among Clinton’s 140 out-the-door pardons and 36 commutations.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also soiled his legacy when on his last night in office he used his pardon power to commute the 16-year sentence for voluntary manslaughter imposed on Esteban Nunez, the son of then Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, for his role in the stabbing death of Luis Santos, a 22-year-old college student.

Schwarzenegger’s decision to reduce Nunez’s sentence to seven years, done at the last minute and without consulting Santos’ parents, robbed him of a rave-review exit.

Political agenda

Harvard Law Professor Jack Goldsmith categorized 42 of Trump’s 65 acts of clemency to date as seeming to “advance a political agenda.”

For his part, Trump has been open about his belief that Mueller’s investigation was politically motivated.

“Every one of Trump’s pardons have some kind of precedent and the president has every right to do that, said Margaret C. Love, the U.S. pardon attorney from 1990 to 1997. “If the president thinks someone is unjustly prosecuted, that’s what the power is all about. It doesn’t mean I have to be persuaded, but the president thinks so.”

Trump was open about the public figures who recommended each act of mercy Tuesday.

“At the request of many Members of Congress, President Trump granted a full pardon to Duncan Hunter. His pardon is also supported by former Commissioner of the Federal Election Commission Bradley Smith,” Press Secretary McEnany said.

Hunter, a former GOP congressman from California whose prosecution was accompanied by press accounts of his first-class lifestyle, was pardoned with a nod to his combat service in Iraq and Afghanistan and the advice of Smith, who argued that Hunter’s behavior was best addressed with civil penalties and at the ballot box.

Trump also pardoned two nonviolent drug offenders, Crystal Munoz and Tynice Nichole Hall, who had served more than a decade in prison, at the urging of Alice Johnson. In June 2018, at the urging of celebrity Kim Kardashian, Trump commuted the life sentence of Johnson, who had served 22 years on drug trafficking charges. Since then, Trump has embraced federal criminal justice sentencing reform.

Blakeman sees Trump’s commutation of Johnson’s sentence as a response to redress an excessive sentence.

Only one Nevadan

Goldsmith said the pardon of Jon Ponder, a former bank robber and the only Nevadan to receive Trump clemency, advanced Trump political agenda.

Trump’s pardon of Ponder, who founded an organization to help ex-cons called Hope for Prisoners, came during a signing ceremony that was aired as part of the second night of the virtual Republican National Convention in August.

“It was truly an honor to receive a full pardon from the President,” Ponder texted. “It meant a great deal to me, my family and hundreds of incarcerated men and women who have reached out to me after reading about it in the paper or seeing it on the news, stating my life story gives them HOPE!”

University of St. Thomas law professor Mark Osler said another Tuesday pardon went to Weldon Angelos, a drug offender whose clemency he supported, but still faulted Trump for bypassing the usual Department of Justice procedures.

“By their own records, there’s 13,750 pending petitions before the pardon attorney and those are people that followed the rules,” Osler said. They submitted the proper paperwork to the pardon attorney’s office and “…they don’t seem to be getting serious consideration,” he said.

Goldsmith calculated that five of the 65 recipients had a recommendation from the pardon attorney’s office. The rest appealed through connections to Trump.

Love said Trump’s use of the pardon power ignored the rules.

“The way this president is distinguished from all other presidents is that he has not allowed ordinary people to have access to his power through the established procedures. For me, it’s everything. He can do a few special deals. I don’t care,” Love said. Trump’s failure to open the process to others, she added, “that I can’t forgive.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.