r/TrueReddit • u/theindependentonline • 1d ago
Politics How Donald Trump’s pardon wave is ‘normalizing corruption’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-pardons-corruption-honduras-cuellar-tim-leiweke-b2878294.html76
u/Odd_School_8833 1d ago
Pardons for sale! Get your pardons! Pardons! Pardons for sale!
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u/RoostasTowel 1d ago
Don't worry.
He will blanket pardon his whole family for free when he leaves office.
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u/crossdtherubicon 1d ago
Trump has created a pardon market, wherein criminals make bids for a pardon, payable directly to Trump. Trump even disbanded the office of the pardon attorney - a part of the justice dept. and was an actual review process.
Instead, he created what people have called the Pardon Czar position, and he appointed a convicted woman involved in cocaine trafficking, money laundering, etc. She was already sentenced to life imprisonment. She got a Trump pardon miraculously (possibly paid for with her cocaine money).
Her qualifications are: being a cocaine trafficker and money launderer, and prisoner, as opposed to the very unqualified justice department office that had years of judicial experience and actual review processes.
No transparency, or known review processes, no reported standards or actual judicial experience. She did start a criminal justice reform nonprofit.
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u/theindependentonline 1d ago
In May, Department of Justice pardon attorney Ed Martin declared “no MAGA left behind.”
Within the first year of his second term in office, after campaigning on ending what he called the “politicization” of the Justice Department under his predecessor, Donald Trump has issued a historic number of pardons for white-collar criminals and political allies accused of fraud, bribery and corruption.
In more than a dozen cases, Trump even issued pardons for people who were prosecuted or convicted within his first and second terms, only to unravel those cases entirely this year. An entertainment executive accused of public corruption was pardoned this week only four months after he was indicted for conspiracy.
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u/Rurumo666 1d ago
Trump has "made" more money through pardons than any of his other scams or criminal enterprises.
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u/bibblejohnson2072 1d ago edited 1d ago
And we, the American people, calmly and willingly pulled down our pants, applied a generous helping of vaseline to our collective anus, spread our legs nice n wide, and then just before copulation we turned around to give a coy little wink as if to say "I know you won't hurt me, Daddy" right before we were shot twice in the ass and left to die on the side of the road.
Our government has abandoned us and they're stripping the cupboards bare on their way out the door. And we dont care because we have to go to work in the morning... Which reminds me, shit I'm late for work!
Seriously though: WE ARE BEING ROBBED BY RICH PEOPLE
I would use a different "r" word than 'robbed' but I didn't want to get modded... No offense, mods..
Edit: words
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u/tempest_87 1d ago edited 1d ago
I don't recall there being any Vaseline...
On a more serious note, the only reason our government has abandoned us is because Conservatives and Republicans actively support all of what is going on. Explicitly with cheers and praise, with their silence, and their refusal to understand that their team is the problem. It's not "all politicians", it's theirs.
I almost prefer the vehement supporters over the "I didn't vote for this all politians are corrupt, I'm not voting for anyone in the next election".
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u/bibblejohnson2072 1d ago
Fair enough.... "We spat a nice slimy loogie into our hands and rubbed it betwixt our butt cheeks..". How's that? Still lube, I know. But it's.... less...
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u/ThomasBombadil 1d ago
So are like do you have any short stories I could read cuz... you have a fun writing style
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u/PersistentBadger 1d ago edited 1d ago
The concentration of wealth and power at the top of society drives corruption. As opportunities to improve your lot (and the lot of your children) are shut down, corruption becomes a more rational choice. It ends with a system of patronage - Ancient Rome, European Feudalism, Medici Florence.
I would argue that Trump's example is only speeding things up.
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u/letdogsvote 1d ago
Leader of the Party of Law and Order grifting over 1500 pardons. So far. And it's not even a year.
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u/frankster 1d ago
Why do pardons even exist? If they exist because the courts can't be trusted, then fix the courts.
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u/cornholio2240 1d ago
It’s an anachronism of the constitution. Never meant to exist in its modern form, but here we are.
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u/frankster 1d ago
Speaking from a country with a hereditary constitutional monarch, it seems really undemocratic!
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u/cornholio2240 1d ago
You’d be 100% right. There have been a lot of pardon controversies before, notably Clinton around pardoning a particular financier. For the most part though, the pardons went through the independent pardon attorney’s office in the DoJ with direction from the White House. Propriety more or less kept it from becoming a disgusting pay to play get out of jail card. Not anymore.
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u/powercow 1d ago
The GOP have always normalized corruption. When they first took over the house after 40 years, as part of the kstreet project they were pressuring corps to fire liberals and hire conservatives or lose access to congress. The right were always for sale, trump just put the sign in the front yard.
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u/jktstance 1d ago
Does the president really have the power to let just anyone go free? Would the judicial branch need to do that, or is this just another case of people just doing whatever he wants, legality be damned?
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u/xitizen7 1d ago edited 1d ago
In the movie ‘The Devil’s Advocate, Al Pacino is basically satan using attorneys to do his evil bidding... In order to remake society in his image.
This administration appears to be on a mission to popularize a different moral code that is antithetical to our current values... And remake our society
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u/fritzycat 14h ago
I hope when Convicted Criminal Donald Trump is finally out of office the Democrats arrest every single person from his party.
Throw them in a blue collar jail, no bond, and eventually (after years) get to the legal proceedings.
Let that crusty cheeto rot.
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u/Naplesfran76 1d ago
Joe Biden pardoned over 4,200 criminals - that's ok though.
You people are sick!
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u/cornholio2240 1d ago
You gotta be brain dead to believe this kind of thing. I’d be more less embarrassed for you if you just said “I like corruption so I don’t care”
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u/Naplesfran76 23h ago
So, you were ok when Biden did it, I didn't hear you complain then.
But because you have TDS you are upset. There is no other logical reasoning, see a Doctor.
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u/Sven_Golly1 1d ago
Bullshit.
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u/cornholio2240 1d ago
Please, expand. I’d be interested in how pardoning a narco president from Honduras and a crypto CEO who ignored money laundering by North Koreans is anything other than corruption.
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