22 January 2021
It is not uncommon for Presidents to issue pardons and commutation of sentences on the last day of their office. President Donald Trump issued pardons for 74 people and commuted the sentences of 70 others in the final hours of his term while Biden’s inauguration got underway.
Here are some of the notable names:
Steve Bannon: He was Trump’s ex-chief of staff who was indicted in August for an alleged fraud scheme arising from Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. He collected $25 million through a non-profit organization under his control for building the wall. According to Department of Justice (DOJ) he used at least part of the collection to cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal expenses.
Elliott Broidy: He was Trump’s top fundraiser. He pleaded guilty in October 2020 to acting as an unregistered foreign agent in a scheme to accept millions of dollars from Malaysian and Chinese interests to lobby the Trump administration.
Albert J. Pirro, Jr: He is the ex-husband of Fox News host and longtime ally Jeanine Pirro. He was convicted on tax evasion charges for deducting $1.2 million of his personal expenses in business write-offs.
Alex Adjmi: He was convicted of a financial crime in 1996 and served 5 years in prison.
Fred Keith Alford: He was convicted in 1977 for a firearm violation and served one year’s unsupervised probation.
Michael Ashley: He was convicted for bank fraud resulting in the collapse of mortgage company, Lend America. He was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 2019. His sentence was commuted.
Lynn Barney: He was sentenced to 35 months in prison for firearm violation as a previously convicted felon. He was also convicted for distributing marijuana.
This is just to give a sample of convicts he pardoned.
His previous pardons were shown in this article.
Source: NBC News and CNN
