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Trump does have a plan for pardoning wealthy friends

Peter Hellios

Granton

Editor:

President Trump had commuted only 10 sentences before making his friend, Roger Stone, number 11. Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison after being convicted of seven felonies, including lying to investigators, tampering with a witness, and impeding a congressional inquiry. He will not spend a single day in prison.

President Trump does not have a plan to fight COVID-19 or to provide Personal Protective Equipment to first responders; he wants schools to open, but he has no plan to get it done safely; he has no plan to help the roughly one million foreign students studying in the U.S. other than ending their education and sending them home; but he does have a plan to help his friends convicted of bribery, obstruction of justice, and lying to authorities. He commutes their sentences. The President has been accused of doing these things himself so maybe that makes him more sympathetic.

Examples of other convicted people receiving commuted sentences from Trump include: former Illinois Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich, for trying to sell the Senate seat that Obama vacated; Dinesh D’Souza was pardoned after pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions; Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., former owner of the San Francisco 49ers, pleaded guilty to concealing an extortion plot; I. Lewis Libby Jr., convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice; Michael R. Milken, a billionaire “junk bond king,” pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges; David H. Safavian, convicted of obstruction of justice and making false statements; and Conrad Black, convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice. In addition to being convicted felons, these people all have money and some past or current connection to Trump.

The 7,786 other people seeking commutation of their sentences with little money and no connections are probably out of luck. Money, not empathy, gets this president’s attention.

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