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Just days before the Christmas holiday, Donald Trump unloaded a wave of pardons for war criminals, corrupt GOP officials and a pair of men convicted in Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, among others.
According to The New York Times, “In an audacious pre-Christmas round of pardons, President Trump granted clemency on Tuesday to two people convicted in the special counsel’s Russia inquiry, four Blackwater guards convicted in connection with the killing of Iraqi civilians and three corrupt former Republican members of Congress.”
The two men related to the Russia investigation that Trump let off the hook were George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan – both of whom pleaded guilty to lying to investigators.
The trio of corrupt former GOP officials that Trump pardoned were Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Chris Collins (R-NY) and Steve Stockman (R-TX). Hunter and Collins were two of Trump’s earliest endorsers in 2016.
Arguably the most disturbing of Trump’s Tuesday pardons is the group of military contractors who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.
More on these contractors via The New York Times:
Mr. Trump’s pardon list also included four former U.S. service members who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007.
One of them, Nicholas Slatten, had been sentenced to life in prison after the Justice Department had gone to great lengths to prosecute him. Mr. Slatten, had been a contractor for the controversial company Blackwater and was sentenced for his role in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad — a massacre that left one of the most lasting stains on the United States of the war.
This is likely just the beginning of Trump’s pardon spree
The batch of pardons that Donald Trump unloaded on Tuesday night is likely just the beginning of what will be a pardon spree over the course of the president’s final month in office.
What remains to be seen is whether Trump’s future pardons will include family members like his children or closer allies like Rudy Giuliani, who is currently under federal investigation – or even himself.
Regardless of who Donald Trump chooses to pardon over the next 29 days, it’s pretty clear that the outgoing president plans to use and abuse his power while he still has it.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
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