WASHINGTON -- Early Tuesday morning, Bernard Kerik's telephone rang. On the line was David Safavian, a friend and fellow former government official who like Kerik was once imprisoned for misconduct. Safavian had life-changing news.Safavian, who had ties to the White House, said that he was putting
WASHINGTON — Early Tuesday morning, Bernard Kerik’s telephone rang. On the line was David Safavian, a friend and fellow former government official who like Kerik was once imprisoned for misconduct. Safavian had life-changing news.
The clemency orders that the president issued that day to celebrity felons like Kerik, Rod Blagojevich and Michael Milken came about through a typically Trumpian process, an ad hoc scramble that bypassed the formal procedures used by past presidents and was driven instead by friendship, fame, personal empathy and a shared sense of persecution. While aides said the timing was random, it reinforced Trump’s antipathy toward the law enforcement establishment.
Trump’s advisers acknowledge that the process is unique to this president but stressed that he has become personally committed to countering the excesses of the criminal justice system, a mission fueled by his own scalding encounters with investigations since taking office. In addition to his pardons, Trump in 2018 signed the First Step Act providing sentencing relief for many criminals.
Trump recognizes that his friends-and-family approach generates criticism but has repeatedly cited his 2018 pardon of I. Lewis Libby Jr. as proof that he is willing to absorb attacks that others would not. President George W. Bush refused to pardon Libby, who served as chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and was convicted of lying to authorities.
In announcing his pardon, the White House cited Paul Pogue’s charitable work around the world, including the creation of two nonprofit organizations that help rebuild churches and provide aid to people after natural disasters. Angela Stanton, an author and television personality with a record stemming from a stolen-vehicle ring, was championed by Alveda King, a niece of Martin Luther King Jr. A Fox News contributor and outspoken Trump supporter, King appeared with Stanton at a “Women for Trump” summit in 2018.
Munoz, serving nearly two decades on a marijuana charge, said that she was called to the office of her case manager and counselor Tuesday. “When I went into their office, they said, ‘Who do you know? Do you know some people?’ ” She did not understand at first. But the person she knew had secured her a commutation.
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