Trump Pardons Bannon, Dozens of Others 01/20 06:18

   President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part 
of a flurry of clemency action in the final hours of his White House term that 
benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, ex-members of 
Congress and other allies of him and his family.

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump pardoned former chief strategist 
Steve Bannon as part of a flurry of clemency action in the final hours of his 
White House term that benefited more than 140 people, including rap performers, 
ex-members of Congress and other allies of him and his family.

   The last-minute clemency, announced Wednesday morning, follows separate 
waves of pardons over the past month for Trump associates convicted in the 
FBI's Russia investigation as well as for the father of his son-in-law. Taken 
together, the actions underscore the president's willingness, all the way 
through his four years in the White House, to flex his constitutional powers in 
ways that defy convention and explicitly aid his friends and supporters.

   To be sure, the latest list was heavily populated by more conventional 
candidates whose cases had been championed by criminal justice activists. One 
man who has spent nearly 24 years in prison on drug and weapons charges but had 
shown exemplary behavior behind bars had his sentence commuted, as did a former 
Marine sentenced in 2000 in connection with a cocaine conviction.

   But the names of prominent Trump allies nonetheless stood out.

   Besides Bannon, other pardon recipients included Elliott Broidy, a 
Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a scheme to lobby the 
Trump administration to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian 
wealth fund, and Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner who was 
charged last October with cyberstalking during a heated divorce.

   Bannon's pardon was especially notable given that the prosecution was still 
in its early stages and any trial was months away. Whereas pardon recipients 
are conventionally thought of as defendants who have faced justice, often by 
having served at least some prison time, the pardon nullifies the prosecution 
and effectively eliminates any prospect for punishment.

   "Steve Bannon is getting a pardon from Trump after defrauding Trump's own 
supporters into paying for a wall that Trump promised Mexico would pay for," 
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said on Twitter. "And if that all sounds crazy, 
that's because it is. Thank God we have only 12 more hours of this den of 
thieves."

   And while other presidents have issued controversial pardons at the ends of 
their administration, perhaps no commander in chief has so enjoyed using the 
clemency authority to benefit not only friends and acquaintances but also 
celebrity defendants and those championed by allies.

   Wednesday's list includes its share of high-profile defendants. Among them 
were rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both convicted in Florida on weapons 
charges. Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, has frequently 
expressed support for Trump and recently met with the president on criminal 
justice issues. Others on the list included Death Row Records co-founder 
Michael Harris and New York art dealer and collector Hillel Nahmad.

   Other pardon recipients include former Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona 
Republican who served three years for corruption, money laundering and other 
charges, and former Rep. Duke Cunningham of California, who was convicted of 
accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Cunningham, who was 
released from prison in 2013, received a conditional pardon.

   Trump also commuted the prison sentence of former Detroit Mayor Kwame 
Kilpatrick, who has served about seven years behind bars for a racketeering and 
bribery scheme.

   Bannon has been charged with duping thousands of donors who believed their 
money would be used to fulfill Trump's chief campaign promise to build a wall 
along the southern border. Instead, he allegedly diverted over a million 
dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for 
himself.

   Bannon did not respond to questions Tuesday.

   Trump has already pardoned a slew of longtime associates and supporters, 
including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; Charles Kushner, the 
father of his son-in-law; his longtime friend and adviser Roger Stone; and his 
former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

   A voice of nationalist, outsider conservatism, Bannon --- who served in the 
Navy and worked at Goldman Sachs and as a Hollywood producer before turning to 
politics --- led the conservative Breitbart News before being tapped to serve 
as chief executive officer of Trump's 2016 campaign in its critical final 
months.

   He later served as chief strategist to the president during the turbulent 
early days of Trump's administration and was at the forefront of many of its 
most contentious policies, including its travel ban on several majority-Muslim 
countries.

   But Bannon, who clashed with other top advisers, was pushed out after less 
than a year. And his split with Trump deepened after he was quoted in a 2018 
book making critical remarks about some of Trump's adult children. Bannon 
apologized and soon stepped down as chairman of Breitbart. He and Trump have 
recently reconciled.

   In August, he was pulled from a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut 
and brought before a judge in Manhattan, where he pleaded not guilty. When he 
emerged from the courthouse, Bannon tore off his mask, smiled and waved to news 
cameras. As he went to a waiting vehicle, he shouted, "This entire fiasco is to 
stop people who want to build the wall."

   The organizers of the "We Build The Wall" group portrayed themselves as 
eager to help the president build a "big beautiful" barrier along the 
U.S.-Mexico border, as he promised during the 2016 campaign. They raised more 
than $25 million from thousands of donors and pledged that 100% of the money 
would be used for the project.

   But according to the criminal charges, much of the money never made it to 
the wall. Instead, it was used to line the pockets of group members, including 
Bannon.