On Tuesday, President Donald Trump announced a series of lame-duck pardons, including for his 2016 campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, whose remark triggered the Russia investigation. He also announced pardons for two men who pleaded guilty in Robert Mueller's investigation, his Republican allies who previously served in Congress, as well as military contractors who played major roles in the fatal shooting of Iraqi civilians.
The pardons of Papadopoulos, Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins, former US congressmen, along with four Blackwater guards that were involved in the Iraq decimation, as The New York Times reported, is a sign of what is likely to be a myriad of pardons and commutations in the next few weeks as Trump gets closer to leaving office. The president pardoned fifteen people on Tuesday, aside from commuting the sentences of five others.
The batch also comprises Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who was sentenced to thirty days in jail after he pleaded guilty to lying to Mueller investigators. In addition to that, it includes two Border Patrol agents who were convicted in 2006 of shooting an unarmed undocumented immigrant and then trying to cover it up, along with a myriad of other people who were convicted of non-violent drug crimes and are serving long sentences, CNN reported.
Commuting the sentences of those convicted of crimes isn't unusual for presidents, who usually grant clemency during their last few days in office. Trump has not shied away from intervening in the cases of allies and friends he claims were not treated fairly.
Despite speculations, the list did not include Trump's own family members, nor himself or his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. However, he commuted former U.S. Representative Steve Stockman's sentence and pardoned state representative Phil Lyman, who spearheaded an ATV protest through restricted native lands, Hindustan Times reported.
Collins was the first member of Congress to back Trump's presidential bid. He was sentenced to two years and two months in federal prison following his admission. He helped his sons and a few others evade $800,000 in stock market losses after he found that a drug trial by a small pharmaceutical company did not succeed.
Hunter was serving 11 months in prison to steal campaign funds and spend the money on outings with friends, his daughter's birthday party, and other similar activities. According to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, pardons for Collins and Hunter were granted following a series of requests from several members of Congress, adding that Hunter served the United States in the US Marines and was involved in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.