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Trump Pardon Watch Thread

Hookah Horns

By Hookah Horns
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pyrohornIII

pyrohornIII 4824

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Hell, half of them you can't even find what they were originally sent up for.   The one thing most of them seem to have in common that they have money to do a lot of philanthropic work, or employ a lot of people.  

Reading between these lines, they could afford to pay for their special dispensations.

18 minutes ago, Hookah Horns said:

No Ross Ulbricht. So fucking lame. I'm sure he had more support for clemency than most of the people who received it. 

He absolutely deserved to go to prison, but not for the rest of his life. I can't imagine how crushing it must be to be in prison for life, get your hopes up for a commutation, and find out you're not getting it, but remorseless dirtbags like Bannon did. 

I figure that most of the prosecutors going after Bannon and the rest of the Trump grifters held back a few select cases that could be opened after Trump's pardon powers were gone.  Not just state, but federal too.   So I imagine we could definitely see Bannon, Flynn, Stone, etc be brought up on different charges that are supported by evidence ongoing investigations "just unearthed."  

Or damn, I sure hope so.

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washparkhorn
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The Turkeys Corn and Cob are not amused by all the anti-pardon rancor.   

HenryJames
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Brisketexan
Brisketexan

Yep. However, one of my law school profs DID lead a lawsuit against Chile, for assassinating a Chilean dissident on US soil.  Chile said "fuck you, get your judgment and try to collect!"  So, he

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DigglerontheHoof

DigglerontheHoof 21263

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Just now, 956 Worldwide said:

This is all so gross.  You just know he and his advisors were sitting around saying "hey, if we pardon a few Black politicians and rappers, it will divert attention and provide cover to wave our wand for all the Medicaid scammers and alt-right goblins we really care about." 

Probably had more to do w/ the amount of $$$$$$$$$$$ they paid him.  But, yeah, as a "testament" to show he's not a raging racist: bonus. 

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pyrohornIII

pyrohornIII 4824

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14 minutes ago, horn4life said:

I wonder how long it took to transcribe the list from the original crayon one?

While that's funny, we know Trump didn't have any more than a passing interest in the bulk of these people.   What did they do and how much did they pay?   That's all he was after.  

He's not bright, but he's sharp enough to know his legal bills are about to grow astronomically, so the pardons like the "stop the steal" fundraising has been about the dollar.   

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FondrenRoad

FondrenRoad 4378

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2 hours ago, Steamboat1874 said:

Not going to read that list because it will piss me off however can someone tell me if that limo left empty from that prison that was waiting on that asshole from Oklahoma?

That limo is still waiting. Trump pardons are a money game and Carole Baskin has more than Joe. 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31646

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11 hours ago, Hookah Horns said:

No Ross Ulbricht. So fucking lame. I'm sure he had more support for clemency than most of the people who received it. 

He absolutely deserved to go to prison, but not for the rest of his life. I can't imagine how crushing it must be to be in prison for life, get your hopes up for a commutation, and find out you're not getting it, but remorseless dirtbags like Bannon did. 

I might guess that Ulbricht has a better chance at a commutation with a different president and once he's served 10+ years.

Obama, acting on advice from GWB, implemented a commutation plan.  Part of it was having served 10 years.

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Tuco

Tuco 5084

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I think Elliot Broidy is the poster child for Republican hypocrisy.  

In 2009 he pled guilty to "providing excessive gratuity" (aka, bribery) to the chief investor of the New York State Retirement Fund.  The charge he pled guilty to was a felony.  It then got reduced to a misdemeanor, after Broidy paid $18M to the state in restitution.  (You know, if more felons would just fork over millions of dollars, they'd no longer be felons.  I should suggest that to the public defenders office.)

In 2016, he became the vice chairman of the Trump Victory Fund - the joint fundraising venture between the Trump campaign and the RNC.  In 2017, he became one of the three National Deputy Finance Chairmen for the RNC.  Convict Michael Cohen was another. 

In 2018, he admitted to paying 1.6M to a Playboy model to get an abortion and to stay quiet about it.  Michael Cohen brokered the deal.  It has been speculated Broidy was taking the fall for Trump.  Broidy resigns from the RNC. 

And that's not the bad shit. I will now quote from Wiki to save on typing. [When reading the shit on Qatar, keep in mind that Trump took credit for engineering an embargo of Qatar in 2017.]

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After Trump won the election, Broidy used his connections to the president to recruit international clients for his security business Circinus, promising that he could arrange meetings with Trump or other high government officials. He obtained defense contracts worth more than $200 million from the United Arab Emirates. Many of his clients had unsavory records.[32] Broidy offered inauguration tickets to Denis Sassou-Nguesso, a Congolese strongman whose lavish lifestyle was paid by public funds. He arranged for an Angolan politician to meet with Republican senators and offered him a trip to Mar-A-Lago. Liviu Dragnea, a Romanian parliamentarian jailed for corruption in May 2019, got to attend an inauguration party and pose for pictures with the president.[32]

In October 2017, in a private meeting with president Donald Trump, Broidy praised a paramilitary force his company Circinus was creating for the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He urged the president to meet with the UAE's military commander Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, to support the UAE's hawkish policies in the Middle East, and to fire United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. He was also harshly critical of Qatar, an American ally at odds with the UAE.[15][33]

In March 2018, The New York Times reported that Lebanese-American businessman George Nader "worked for more than a year to turn Broidy into an instrument of influence at the White House for the rulers of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to interviews and previously undisclosed documents. ...High on the agenda of the two men...was pushing the White House to remove Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, backing confrontational approaches to Iran and Qatar and repeatedly pressing the president to meet privately outside the White House with the leader of the U.A.E."[16]

In March 2018, Broidy filed a lawsuit against Qatar, alleging that Qatar's government stole and leaked his emails in order to discredit him because he was viewed "as an impediment to their plan to improve the country's standing in Washington."[34] In May 2018, the lawsuit named Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, brother of the Emir of Qatar, and his associate Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, as allegedly orchestrating Qatar's cyber warfare campaign against Broidy.[35][36] Broidy accused UN diplomat Jamal Benomar of being a secret Qatari agent, and filed suit for the alleged hacking. In the case Broidy Capital Management LLC v. Jamal Benomar, it was determined that Jamal Benomar (of Qatar) had diplomatic immunity that prevented him from facing litigation. As per the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, diplomatic immunity is subject to waiver if the diplomat engaged in commercial activity.[37] In this case, it was not proven that Benomar had engaged in said commercial activity. The appellate court determined that there was not sufficient evidence to waive Benomar's diplomatic immunity, and the case was dismissed.[38]

Quote

n March 2018, The Wall Street Journal reported that Broidy had been in negotiations to earn tens of millions of dollars by lobbying the U.S. Justice Department to drop its investigation into a multibillion-dollar graft 1Malaysia Development Berhad scandal involving a Malaysian state investment fund, 1MDB, according to emails reviewed by the Journal. One email showed a proposal that would have given Broidy and his wife $75 million if they got the Justice Department to drop its probe into 1MDB. Broidy also prepared talking points for Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak to tell Trump during his 2017 visit to Washington, D.C. This included playing up Malaysia's relationship with the U.S. in fighting North Korea and arguing against pursuing legal action against 1MDB.[60][61] Razak would eventually be convicted of corruption by a Malaysian court. The Department of Justice is investigating whether the Trump Victory Committee took a $100,000 donation from Malaysian businessman and international fugitive Jho Low, who is accused of being the mastermind of the 1MDB fraud.[62][63]

In November 2018, The New York Times reported that Federal prosecutors accused him of involvement in a scheme to launder millions of dollars into the United States to help Malaysian financier Jho Low end a Justice Department investigation into the embezzlement of billions of dollars from 1MDB.[64]

On October 8, 2020, federal prosecutors publicly announced that they were charging Broidy conspiring to act as a foreign agent as he lobbied the Trump administration on behalf of Malaysian and Chinese government interests, a felony.[65] On October 20, 2020 Broidy plead guilty to these charges.[66] As part of his plea deal, Mr. Broidy agreed to forfeit $6.6 million to the federal government.[66] The felony to which Broidy plead guilty carries a prison sentence of up to five years.[66] On January 19, 2021 Mr. Broidy was granted a full pardon by President Donald J. Trump.

So, yeah, bribery, abortion, lobbying for the Chinese Communist government, lobbying for Muslim theocracies, etc...  But he funnels money to Republicans, so they do not consider him a criminal.  

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Nice Guy Eddie

Nice Guy Eddie 13530

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I'm still surprised that Trump didn't pardon his kids. Shows that he's still more worried about himself and he doesn't want them testifying about Trump Org or Trump admin activities. Or not giving a pardon to Giuliani. Jan. 6th will go down in history as yuge political blunder since that seems to be at the crux of why Trump didn't give more pardons. 

As for secret pardons, I don't know about the legality of someone basically producing a pardon, out of their wallet signed and dated by Trump, as a get-out-of-jail card. Trump may very well have did that, but the DOJ keeps a list of who has received a pardon. Say Don, Jr. produces one of these secret pardons next year, he runs a risk of being laughed at in court and not finding a judge that will accept the pardon.

Trump would have been advised that giving secret pardons may equate to nothing. It's also possible that receiving/accepting a secret pardon could be viewed as a admission of guilt with zero protection of a pardon. Worst of both worlds.

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Gil Bang

Gil Bang 26069

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Duke Cunningham.  He fucking pardoned Duke Cunningham.  A congressman so fucking crooked that he literally had a bribe menu, so people knew what it would take to get a specific "favor" from him.  

He should be buried under the fucking jail.   He got a pardon. 

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32432

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https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-01-21/fingerpointing-outrage-after-trump-pardons-usc-father-in-college-admission-scandal

 

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Federal prosecutors had accused Robert Zangrillo, a Miami developer, of a costly and criminal effort to secure his daughter’s entry to USC.

In 2017, Zangrillo hired associates of Newport Beach consultant Rick Singer to secretly complete his daughter’s high school classes. Later, Zangrillo paid others to complete his daughter’s community college classes. And to get his daughter accepted to USC as a transfer student, prosecutors alleged, he opted for Singer’s notorious “side door,” paying $250,000 as part of a scheme to falsely cast his daughter as a crew recruit.

 

 

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A trial was scheduled for later this year in Boston on charges related to fraud, bribery and money laundering.

Yet in the final hours of his presidency on Wednesday, Donald Trump extended a merciful hand toward the wealthy Florida investor and issued a “full pardon” that appeared to put an end to the prosecution. 

The fallout was swift.

 

 

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In a statement, the U.S. attorney for Massachusetts, Andrew E. Lelling, took a swipe at Zangrillo for “having his own daughter knowingly participate in a scheme to lie to USC,” and said the pardon demonstrated “precisely why Operation Varsity Blues was necessary in the first place.” 

The White House said the pardon was backed by several businesspeople, including L.A. developer Geoff Palmer, but also investor Thomas J. Barrack, a USC alumnus and a university trustee, which drew shock at the campus and beyond.

Barrack, a longtime friend of Trump who also chaired his inauguration committee, denied playing any role.

 

Spoiler

“Mr. Barrack had nothing whatsoever to do with Mr. Zangrillo’s pardon,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “He never intervened and never had discussion with anyone about it. All reports to the contrary are patently false.”

A USC spokeswoman declined to comment on the pardon, even though the university was considered a victim of the alleged fraud. 

“I hope it’s true that a USC trustee, with a fiduciary duty to the university, played no role in securing a pardon for a wrongdoer whose actions have done so much harm to USC’s reputation,” said Ariela Gross, a law professor and chair of Concerned Faculty of USC, a group of hundreds of faculty.

A person familiar with Barrack who was not authorized to comment publicly told The Times that Zangrillo had not met the prominent trustee, but had tried several avenues to get his help in connection with the college admissions case. Zangrillo was blocked at every turn, the person said. 

There appeared to be other questionable elements in the pardon announcement. The White House said Amber Zangrillo was “currently earning” a 3.9 grade-point average at USC, but a university spokesperson confirmed to The Times that she was not enrolled there. 

And Sean Parker, the tech billionaire and Napster founder, denied playing any role in Zangrillo’s case, despite the White House including him among the supporters. 

“Sean doesn’t know [Zangrillo] and did not make any request for a pardon on his behalf,” Parker’s spokesman said. 

When prosecutors unveiled the college admissions case in 2019, USC was the epicenter of the bribery and fraud scheme, with an administrator, a coach, a professor and more than a dozen parents facing charges.

Zangrillo’s case stood out. He was the only defendant accused of paying third parties to complete his daughter’s high school and college coursework. In court filings, prosecutors detailed how involved both father and daughter were in Singer’s scheme.

In a conversation intercepted by investigators, Singer told Robert Zangrillo and his daughter that she would go through USC’s admissions process as an athletic recruit. After she was accepted, Zangrillo sent $50,000 to USC’s athletics department, in accordance with Singer’s instructions, and later paid $200,000 to Singer, prosecutors said.

Donna Heinel, a former administrator in USC’s athletics department who prosecutors say was part of Singer’s scheme, had not categorized Zangrillo as a recruit but as a “VIP,” even though she was not an elite athlete. Prosecutors contended that although Amber Zangrillo was ultimately granted admission as a VIP, and not a recruited athlete, her father understood that she was being fraudulently packaged to USC as a gifted rower.

“Mr. Zangrillo encouraged, aided, abetted and paid for that fraud on multiple, multiple occasions,” Eric Rosen, a federal prosecutor, said in a 2019 hearing.

From the outset, Zangrillo waged a uniquely aggressive campaign for his defense and sought to expose USC’s admissions practices. His lawyers fought for a raft of internal documents about USC’s admissions and the role of philanthropy in elevating applicants. 

Zangrillo’s legal team also wanted USC to turn over a particularly sensitive set of information: the names of prominent people who had gone to bat for certain applicants. 

USC and its lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher fought hard against revealing those names, but a judge ultimately ordered the school to turn over the documents to Zangrillo’s lawyers without redactions, names and all.

The pardon for Zangrillo could prevent that information and other aspects of USC’s admissions from being aired during a jury trial.

Behind Zangrillo’s pugnacious legal strategy was a defense that hinged on the theory that USC routinely admitted the offspring of donors and other prominent individuals as special or “VIP” applicants. 

“The notion that Robert Zangrillo’s $50,000 check to USC, made after his daughter’s admission, was a ‘bribe’ is legally wrong — there was no quid pro quo corrupt agreement between Mr. Zangrillo and USC that brought this relatively ordinary gift to a university into the orbit of the federal criminal law,” his lawyers wrote in a 2019 filing. 

“It was a donation indistinguishable from the vast numbers of other donations by parents of students made to USC and apparently to other universities and colleges nationwide,” the lawyers added.

While others ensnared in the college admissions scandal have spent time in prison or lost work, Zangrillo has remained active in business. 

He is the founder and CEO of Dragon Global, an investment firm, and late last year, his attorneys told a judge he was involved in meeting potential investors and exploring business opportunities in Mexico. 

Zangrillo sought permission to travel to Cancun, Playa del Carmen and Tulum for 10 days of business meetings last November. A judge approved the trip.

 

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B00M

B00M 6520

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17 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

Soooo he didn't pardon himself and he didn't resign to be pardoned...when does the DOJ come knocking?  Seems kinda stupid, even for dotard.

Was there any truth to him being able to keep pardons for himself and kids secret? It smells like bullshit, but I'm pretty sure I read it here the other day.

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Grandioso

Grandioso 2592

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On 1/20/2021 at 4:41 PM, Gil Bang said:

Duke Cunningham.  He fucking pardoned Duke Cunningham.  A congressman so fucking crooked that he literally had a bribe menu, so people knew what it would take to get a specific "favor" from him.  

He should be buried under the fucking jail.   He got a pardon. 

Came here to laugh about this. Just an absolute cartoon of a human. A Cohen brothers character. The monorail guy meets the corrupt congressman in "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington."

Trump had no reason to do this. It's like with Blago, I think he just can't abide a white man serving time for financial crimes. 

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Gatorubet

Gatorubet 30330

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Representative Rick Renzi – President Trump granted a full pardon to Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona. Mr. Renzi’s pardon is supported by Representative Paul Gosar, Representative Tom Cole, former Representative Tom DeLay,

When Tom Delay is your moral compass...
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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31646

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On 1/22/2021 at 10:00 AM, Bama Chick said:

Now if only someone takes advantage.
 

That's really interesting.  I contend that the more specific a pardon is, the more likely it is to benefit the pardoned (vaguer ones I think remain subject to attack as valid pardons).  But a "combination" pardon, for specific offenses and convictions, as well as for generalized "any offense against the United States committed before the date of this pardon," would be maximally effective.

I don't think Trump is smart enough to distinguish between broad and narrow pardons and reasoning supporting them unless someone explained it to him like a 5th grader.  So someone, Cipollone perhaps, was behind this.

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Biff Tannen

Biff Tannen 45753

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5 minutes ago, Michael Knight said:

turns out Trump didn't have to pardon himself after all

I guess that part of the constitution doesn't matter, we can't charge him when he's president and now that he's no longer president we also can't charge him. What the fuck is the point

All politicians are above the law.  Forever, it seems.

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Hookah Horns

Hookah Horns 3083

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On 1/23/2021 at 3:11 PM, TwiceHorn said:

That's really interesting.  I contend that the more specific a pardon is, the more likely it is to benefit the pardoned (vaguer ones I think remain subject to attack as valid pardons).  But a "combination" pardon, for specific offenses and convictions, as well as for generalized "any offense against the United States committed before the date of this pardon," would be maximally effective.

I don't think Trump is smart enough to distinguish between broad and narrow pardons and reasoning supporting them unless someone explained it to him like a 5th grader.  So someone, Cipollone perhaps, was behind this.

Having compared the pardons with gaps to the watertight Flynn one, I have no doubt Cipollone or other attorneys purposely left these easter eggs behind. 

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Francisco 2.0

Francisco 2.0 32432

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Bump.

https://www.postandcourier.com/politics/securing-a-presidential-pardon-is-rare-but-scs-sen-tim-scott-landed-one-for-his/article_3a171b50-88be-11eb-8cbd-dfccc9226b1d.html

 

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In the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott secured a pardon for a pastor he applauded for becoming a model citizen after being convicted in a cocaine bust in the 1990s.

Less widely known: the man is Scott’s cousin.

Securing a presidential pardons is a rare feat. Some 143 pardons were issued by the Trump administration. Yet through leveraging his close relationship with Trump, Scott secured one of at least six forgiveness actions issued to people with South Carolina ties before Trump left the White House on Jan. 20. 

 

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The pastor, Otis Gordon, has “focused on helping young men avoid the same traps he once fell in”, Scott said.

The Trump administration agreed, issuing a pardon to Gordon on Dec. 22. 

While the White House internally knew about their biological connection, Scott’s office said, the Republican senator did not publicly acknowledge or announce Gordon was his blood kin or that he had been a longtime paid staffer with Scott’s political campaigns.

 

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On March 22, Scott’s spokesman said the senator would not be available for comment and declined to answer questions from The Post and Courier.

The genesis for the pardon dates to at least Dec. 3, based on an email from Scott to the White House that Scott’s office shared with the newspaper.

The note shows Scott emailing Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows. It read:

 

Spoiler

“Hello Mark!

“I would like to ask the President to pardon Otis Gordon. Otis was convicted in 1991 of conspiracy to distribute drugs. His first conviction. He served a total of 6 years and has been a model citizen since. He was released in 1997 and is now a pastor focused on helping young men avoid the same traps he once fell in. I personally believe that he is an excellent candidate for a pardon. Happy to provide d/o/b and social security if you need it.

Tim Scott”

The federal Office of the Pardon Attorney pulled Gordon’s criminal records Dec. 16. Six days later, Trump issued the pardon.

It is common for most pardons to come in the final days of an exiting administration. Most previous White House occupants have done so in decisions that benefitted supporters, donors, politically like-minded individuals, people they felt were wrongly prosecuted, those who turned their lives around and even long-deceased historical figures.  

But the deference bestowed to the president has drawn scrutiny from those who say the system is set up to promote the well-connected over others who may be less known but still arguably deserving of forgiveness.

Craig Holman, a government affairs lobbyist with Public Citizen, a nonprofit watchdog advocacy organization, said the act of seeking a pardon for a family member, while not illegal, should widely be condemned. 

“That’s highly unethical,” Holman said. “That’s just like a person from Congress pushing for some financial gain for a family member. It’s not necessarily illegal or violates a congressional rule, but it is self-dealing.” 

Others see it differently. Margaret Love, a former federal pardon attorney who served in the government from 1990 to 1997, during the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, said it should not raise eyebrows that a politician tried to support a pardon for someone they are deeply connected to. She mentioned, as an example, when Clinton pardoned his half-brother for previous drug charges. 

“As long as the president knew (it was Scott’s cousin), I don’t see anything wrong with this,” Love said. “It’s normal for members of Congress to support pardons for their constituents.” 

Ken Farnaso, spokesman in Scott’s Washington, D.C., office, said Gordon also worked as a part of Scott’s security. 

“Otis Gordon, a member of the senator’s campaign team, acts as an advance and security staffer that ensures every event the senator attends in the state — from church functions to political rallies — is safe and secure,” Farnaso said in a statement provided to The Post and Courier.

Gordon, 49, is a pastor at Life Changer’s International Ministries in North Charleston. He has not responded to several inquiries from The Post and Courier since January. He was convicted in 1991 on a nonviolent federal charge of selling, distributing or dispensing a controlled substance — the case involved about 4 kilos of cocaine — and has been out of prison for more than 20 years.

 

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