Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/12/22/trump-gives-out-20-pardons-to-russia-inquiry-figures-a-blackwater-guard-fellow-corrupt-politicians-and-more.html
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Collins used to be my congressman. Here’s some fun facts about him in case you forgot.
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He was the first congressman to endorse Trump.
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He was LITERALLY caught on camera insider trading on the White House lawn during a picnic.
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He refused to do town halls with his constituents. To try to deflect from that criticism, he agreed to do a live town hall on CNN. The kicker was he agreed to do it in New York City… which is an seven to eight and a half hour drive from his district in the outer suburbs of Buffalo and outer edge of the finger lakes. Many of his constituents made the drive and confronted him about that fact on live tv. He didn’t do another town hall ever again after that hahaha
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I suppose the only upshot one could take from the massive impending pardon-spree is that once pardoned, they cannot plead the fifth in future investigations if there ever is one.
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Also, this guy ran against him.
Politics in the 27th is so fucked up.
Edit: might as well include that video I mentioned earlier so you know I wasn’t being hyperbolic
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The George Papadopoulos that bragged to an Australian diplomat (while drunk) that Russians had hacked Hillary Clinton’s emails and would use them to help trump’s campaign (this was before it had been publically released that Clinton had been hacked at all), thereby leading to the start of the FBI’s investigation?
That Papadopoulos?
Can we put him on the stand tomorrow to testify that the Trump Tower meeting was set up specifically in the hopes of receiving damaging emails from that hack?
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No, wait until after January 20th. He might name someone that Trump hasn’t pardoned yet and might forget to pardon pre-emptively.
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HOW is it legal to pardon co-conspirators and witnesses to your own bullshit? Why have presidential pardons at all? I don’t see how the weird nicety survives this admin.
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I’d say most presidents use it mostly to do good. Pardon innocent people who’ve been shafted by the system. Hell, even 45 accidentally made a good pardon earlier in his term, for al the wrong reasons (because a celebrity asked him to).
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I’ll be interested to see if anyone, aside from the usual people who think that war crimes are bad, has anything to say about Slatten.
It’s not a big surprise from Trump; but I have to imagine that there are some people who normally don’t mind bellicose nationalism; but are not amused by the idea of mercenary loose cannons whose actions did the American cause in the region no favors at all getting let off the hook.
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Or those who show remorse or otherwise atone for what they did. These pardons are nothing more than self dealing and political favors. It’s disgusting.
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It’s one of the many things Trump has done that doesn’t break any rules because it hadn’t occurred to anyone you’d need a rule.
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Yeah, but there’s definitely a strain in the conservative movement that has been pushing the idea that war crimes are good, or perhaps, pushing the idea that there are no ‘war crimes’–whatever happens in a war zone is okay. That T*** supports this idea is totally consistent with everything else he’s ever done.
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Why not? They already claim there’s no such thing as hate speech, because first amendment. This just seems like a natural evolution.
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Congressman Schiff - ““Trump is doling out pardons, not on the basis of repentance, restitution or the interests of justice, but to reward his friends and political allies, to protect those who lie to cover up for him, to shelter those guilty of killing civilians, and to undermine an investigation that uncovered massive wrongdoing,” Schiff said.
“It goes to show, if you elect a corrupt man as President of the United States, you get corruption ― and lots of it.””
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Piss on all of their graves.
Americans they are not.
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No one here is actually surprised, I’m sure.
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Sounds exactly like the kind of scumsucking shite Trump loves.
I wish we had an amendment to remove the ability to pardon after an election if lost.
Pardoning political buddies and admitted perjurers to the FBI and Congress. Big suprise, just what everyone expected of the Criminal In Chief
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He calls it “Draining the Swamp”. My current President has broken all the norms.
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It’s kind of funny, when you consider that Trump expects mafia level permanent fealty from his co-conspirators but will be the first one to throw somebody under the bus if they are no longer useful to him.
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It seems like sense to limit some presidential powers (like pardons) during the time between November and January 20, on election years.
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