Yahoo Finance Trump’s Parting Clemency List: Steve Bannon, Lil Wayne And More
President Donald Trump granted clemency to 143 people, including former aides, party loyalists and even a rapper early Wednesday morning, just hours before he was set to leave office.
The list of those granted clemency includes:
Former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who was facing trial and a possible conviction for his role in a coordinated scheme to fleece the president’s supporters with a border wall fundraiser.
Kwame Kilpatrick, the disgraced former mayor of Detroit.
GOP fundraiser Elliott Broidy, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate foreign lobbying laws.
Ken Kurson, the former editor of the New York Observer and a close friend of son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Rapper Lil Wayne, who was prosecuted on federal weapons charges.
Kodak Black, in prison on federal weapons charges.
Anthony Levandoswki, convicted of stealing trade secrets related to self-driving cars.
Former Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.), convicted of extortion, bribery, insurance fraud, money laundering and racketeering.
The list did not include any members of the Trump family or other notable figures whose names had come up in recent speculation about pardons, such as Rudy Giuliani, Julian Assange or Edward Snowden.
The president’s new list of pardons and commutations comes just weeks after he pardoned dozens of other allies, including his friend and confidant Roger Stone, his former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner, father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared. Other allies of Trump who have received pardons in the final weeks of his presidency include former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos and lawyer Alex van der Zwaan, who both pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), chair of the House Intelligence Committee, denounced Trump’s decision to pardon Manafort, calling the president “lawless until the bitter end.”
During the Mueller investigation, Trump’s lawyer floated a pardon to Manafort.
Manafort withdrew his cooperation with prosecutors, lied, was convicted, and then Trump praised him for not “ratting.”
Trump’s pardon now completes the corrupt scheme.
Lawless until the bitter end.— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) December 24, 2020
Along with Trump’s pardoning of corrupt, criminally convicted political allies, the president granted perhaps his most shocking pardons on Dec. 22 for the four former Blackwater security contractors involved in the killings of more than a dozen unarmed Iraqi civilians in 2007. The 14 civilians who were killed included a medical student and his mother, as well as a man whose arms were raised when Blackwater agents opened fire on him, according to U.S. federal prosecutors. Others were killed as Blackwater agents fired on their vehicles while they attempted to flee, according to The Washington Post.
Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard were convicted on murder and manslaughter charges in 2014 after a monthslong trial in federal court in Washington. After they received their pardons, Faris Fadel, the brother of slain Iraqi civilian Osama Abbas, called Trump’s decision “unfair.”
“This decision was wrong, it was unfair,” Fadel said. “How can you release those who have blood on their hands?”
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This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
