Trump is ramping up pardons of convicted fraudsters

Since returning to the White House a year ago, President Donald Trump has been pardoning his allies while using the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to target his political foes — from former FBI Director James Comey to New York State Attorney General Letitia James to former National Security Adviser John Bolton. Trump pardoned supporters who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, including members of far-right groups like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers. But many of the people he has pardoned were convicted of federal white-collar crimes.

In an article published on January 26, The Guardian's Adam Gabbatt notes that Trump's recent "focus" has been "to grant clemency to those convicted of fraud."

"Those include Wanda Vázquez Garced, the former governor of Puerto Rico who pleaded guilty last year to a campaign finance violation," Gabbatt reports. "The U.S. Department of Justice said Vázquez took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from a Venezuelan, Julio Herrera Velutini, and Mark Rossini in exchange for firing a federal official investigating a bank owned by Herrera Velutini. Trump pardoned Herrera Velutini and Rossini, who were both convicted of wire fraud, along with Vázquez…. Another pardon this month was given to a woman to whom Trump had granted clemency during his first term."

Gabbatt adds, "Adriana Camberos had a fraud-related sentence commuted by Trump in 2021 after being convicted as part of an elaborate fake 5-hour Energy Drink scheme."

The Guardian reporter notes that "more than half of Trump's 88 individual pardons" were "for white-collar offenses."

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, told The Guardian, "Our analysis shows that Trump's criminal pardon spree is, in addition to everything else, an astonishing giveaway to lawbreakers to keep the money they stole from their employees, their investors, and all the American taxpayers. Whoever said crime doesn't pay has certainly not studied the Trump Administration."

Read Adam Gabbatt's full article for The Guardian at this link.

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