WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump forgave former chief strategist Steve Bannon as part of a flurry of leniency in the closing hours of his White House term that benefited over 140 people, including rap artists, ex-members of Congress and other allies of his and his family.
The last-minute-announced leniency notice, announced Wednesday morning, follows separate waves of pardon in the past month for Trump employees convicted in the FBI’s Russia investigation, as well as for his son-in-law’s father. Taken together, the actions underscore the president’s willingness, during his four years in the White House, to bend his constitutional powers in a way that defies convention and explicitly helps his friends and supporters.
Certainly, the latter list was heavily populated by more conventional candidates whose cases were defended by criminal activists. A man who spent nearly 24 years in prison on drug and gun charges but demonstrated exemplary behavior behind bars was commuted, as was a former Marine who was convicted in 2000 of a cocaine display.
But the names of prominent Trump allies stood out nonetheless.
In addition to Bannon, other pardon recipients included Elliott Broidy, a Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall in a plan to lobby the Trump administration to drop an investigation into the looting of a Malaysian wealth fund, and Ken Kurson, a friend from Trump. law Jared Kushner who was charged with cyberstalking during a heated divorce last October.
Bannon’s pardon was especially notable given that the prosecution was still in its early stages and a trial would take months. While recipients of pardon are conventionally viewed as defendants who have been on trial, often by serving at least some imprisonment, the pardon nullifies the prosecution and effectively eliminates any prospect of punishment.
“Steve Bannon is pardoned by Trump after defrauding Trump’s own supporters into paying for a wall Trump promised Mexico would pay for,” said the Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff on Twitter. And if that all sounds crazy, it’s because it is. Thank goodness we’ve only got 12 hours from this den of thieves. “
And while other presidents have controversially pardoned their reigns, perhaps no commander-in-chief has so enjoyed using the leniency power to benefit not only friends and acquaintances but also celebrity defendants and those defended by allies. .
Wednesday’s list includes the proportion of high-profile defendants. Among them were rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, both convicted in Florida for gun charges. Wayne, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter, has repeatedly expressed his support for Trump and recently met with the president on criminal matters. Others on the list included Michael Harris, co-founder of Death Row Records and New York art dealer and collector Hillel Nahmad.
Other recipients of pardons include former Rep. Rick Renzi, an Arizona Republican who served three years on 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, was pardoned.
Trump also commuted the jail sentence of former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who spent about seven years behind bars for extortion and bribery.
Bannon has been accused of defrauding thousands of donors who believed their money would be used to fulfill Trump’s key campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. Instead, he would have diverted more than a million dollars, paying a salary to a campaign officer and personal expenses for himself.
Bannon did not respond to questions on Tuesday.
Trump has already pardoned a slew of longtime associates and supporters, including his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort; Charles Kushner, his son-in-law’s father; his old friend and advisor Roger Stone; and his former national security adviser Michael Flynn.
A voice of nationalist, outsider conservatism, Bannon – who served in the Navy and Goldman Sachs and worked as a Hollywood producer before turning to politics – led the conservative Breitbart News before being approached to serve as chief executive officer of Trump’s 2016 campaign in its critical final months.
He later served as the president’s chief strategist during the turbulent early days of the Trump administration and was at the forefront of many of his most controversial policies, including the travel ban on several Muslim countries.
But Bannon, who clashed with other top advisers, was expelled after less than a year. And his split with Trump deepened after he was quoted in a 2018 book with critical comments about some of Trump’s adult children. Bannon apologized and soon stepped down as chairman of Breitbart. He and Trump recently reconciled.
In August, he was taken from a luxury yacht off the coast of Connecticut and taken to a judge in Manhattan, pleading not guilty. As he emerged from the courthouse, Bannon ripped off his mask, smiled, and waved at news cameras. As he went to a waiting car, he shouted, “This whole fiasco is to stop people who want to build the wall.”
The organizers of the “We Build The Wall” group showed themselves eager to help the president build a “big beautiful” barrier along the US-Mexico border, as he pledged during the 2016 campaign. 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 charges, much of the money never made it to the wall. Instead, it was used to fill the pockets of group members, including Bannon.
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Associated Press writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.