President Donald Trump doled out clemency to a new group of loyalists on Wednesday, wiping away convictions and sentences as he aggressively employed his power to override courts, juries and prosecutors to apply his own standard of justice for his allies.
One recipient of a pardon was a family member, Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner. Two others who were pardoned declined to cooperate with prosecutors in connection with the special counsel’s Russia probe: Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger Stone, his longtime informal adviser and friend. They were the most prominent names in a batch of 26 pardons and three commutations.
Of the 65 pardons and commutations that Trump had granted before Wednesday, 60 have gone to petitioners who had a personal tie to Trump or who helped his political aims, according to a tabulation by Harvard Law School professor Jack Goldsmith.
The wording of the pardons for Manafort and Stone reflected Trump’s grievances about former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, referring to the “Russian collusion hoax,” “prosecutorial misconduct” and “injustice.” Manafort, 71, had been sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role in a multimillion-dollar financial fraud scheme. Stone, 68,was convicted for lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House inquiry into possible Trump campaign coordination with Russia.
The pardon of Kushnerhas been one of the most anticipated. Kushner, 66, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Election Commissionin a case that was also a lurid family drama. He served two years in prison before being released in 2006. The witness he was accused of retaliating against was his brother-in-law.