Octopus Overlords

President Donald Trump's associates are making appeals to him in the hopes of obtaining pardons before he leaves office, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Tuesday.

The source said the list of associates broaching the subject of preemptive pardons that would seek to shield those individuals from prosecution includes Rudy Giuliani, who has been leading the President's long-shot legal battles to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in his role as Trump's personal attorney.

Since the election, Trump has been discussing with advisers preemptively pardoning several people close to him, including his children, son-in-law and Giuliani, a separate source familiar confirmed to CNN. The potential pardon list includes others who are close to the President and could be legally vulnerable but have not been charged.

RunningMn9 wrote: ↑Wed Dec 02, 2020 7:45 pm That’s how you know you’ve done a good job, you have to give out pardons like candy so your entire family isn’t thrown in jail for all of their crimes.

Roger Stone, Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, Stephanie Mohr. You’ve probably heard about President Trump’s odious pre-Christmas pardons for the first three — and nothing about Mohr, a former Prince George’s County police officer. But Mohr’s pardon — for violating a homeless man’s civil rights by unleashing her K-9 on him — is equally, if not more undeserving. Of all the acts to pardon in a year that witnessed the killing of George Floyd, it is the most insensitive and inflaming.

I know; I was part of the team at the Justice Department’s civil rights division that helped prosecute Mohr in 2001.

In the middle of the night on Sept. 21, 1995, a local Prince George’s County police burglary stakeout unit found two homeless men on the empty roof of a business, eating food they had found in the trash in Takoma Park, Md. Ordered down from the roof, Ricardo Mendez and his friend willingly climbed down. Lit by a police helicopter above and facing a brick wall, the two men were surrounded by police officers, some with guns drawn, and Mohr holding her German shepherd on a leash. Both men obeyed commands and stood facing the wall with their hands up.

It should have been over. It wasn’t.

A police sergeant later testified that he was approached by Mohr’s supervising officer who said, “Hey Sarge, we got a new dog. Mind if it gets a bite?” The sergeant gave consent, and Mohr set her dog to attack Mendez, an undocumented immigrant whose only crime was seeking a safe place to eat and sleep. Mohr testified that she was doing her job as trained, and the victim needed “only 10 stitches.”

Think about that: only 10 stitches. Mohr disregarded her training to give her dog a taste of flesh and blood.

This was no accident or split-second mistake. It was a willful and deliberate act of police brutality. It was also not Mohr’s first — and there was a pattern to the violence. Evidence at trial showed that Mohr had previously released her dog on a Black teenager sleeping in a hammock in his own backyard. She had threatened the relatives of a fugitive that she would let her dog attack their “black ass” if they did not tell her where he was. There were other incidents that the jury did not even learn about, including one in which Mohr put her dog into a trash dumpster to attack a man who had fled from police.

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Dec 30, 2020 9:46 pm Why pardon such an asshole?

We know why. Trump is a sociopath who values "strength" and always has. Ethics and laws are for weak people, and he thinks pardoning and encouraging cruel cops and vicious soldiers will win the support of all of the rest of them (whom he assumes are naturally cruel *because* they are strong).

It's the same reason he admires autocrats like Putin and Erdogan and Kim. He envies their freedom from restraint and wants it for himself.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:44 pm He probably heard that the Proud Boys are looking for a few good women.

Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:52 pm Motherfucker Steve Bannon.

YellowKing wrote:At this point I'm in "do what you gotta do and just get the hell out" mode.

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:13 am I heard on the news the other night that the President can issue 'private' or 'secret' pardons that are not made public, until some point in the future should the person be brought to court - the secret pardon would be brought forth.

I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell (who I don't particularly like) who was saying it.... "don't trust the list"...

Is that true? I assume he wouldn't have reported it if it's not... but that sounds NUTS. And I've not heard anyone else talking about that point at all.

Unagi wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:13 am I heard on the news the other night that the President can issue 'private' or 'secret' pardons that are not made public, until some point in the future should the person be brought to court - the secret pardon would be brought forth.

I think it was Lawrence O'Donnell (who I don't particularly like) who was saying it.... "don't trust the list"...

Is that true? I assume he wouldn't have reported it if it's not... but that sounds NUTS. And I've not heard anyone else talking about that point at all.

Presidential grants are a matter of public record, so immediately after Presidential action, the name of each person granted a pardon or commutation, along with the district they were convicted, year of sentencing, offense, and the date the President granted their request is publicly listed on the Office of the Pardon Attorney website. This information may also be posted on The White House website and included in press releases issued by the Department or The White House.

malchior wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 12:04 am

Jaymann wrote: ↑Tue Jan 19, 2021 11:52 pm Motherfucker Steve Bannon.

I'm not shocked. This is actually potentially interesting one if it turns out that Bannon's links to the 6th pan out. It'll put the GOP in a tough spot.

More context. I just heard one prosecutor say that this could open him to criminal prosecution because he is pardoning someone who was involved in his own crimes. The text of the pardon is going to be important.

Blackhawk wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:28 am Some reading suggests that the secret pardon is a lot like the self pardon: Not expressly forbidden, but against the original intent, of questionable legality, and never tested in court.

malchior wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 12:21 pm

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 20, 2021 11:15 am I believe I read that the Bannon pardon was specifically about the charge of defrauding investors in the "Fund the Wall" scheme.

Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.

Isgrimnur wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 1:04 pm politico

Former Trump adviser Paul Manafort was removed from a plane at Miami International Airport before it took off for Dubai because he carried a revoked passport, officials said Wednesday.

He submitted 10 passport application in the last decade and currently holds three U.S. passports, the memo said.

It is rare but legal to hold three valid passports.

People can apply for more than one passport under limited circumstances, including when a foreign country will deny entry to someone holding a passport showing travel to certain other countries or when a visa request is being processed but a person needs a valid passport for immediate travel, a State Department official said on Wednesday.

The official could not comment on Manafort’s passport records but said requests for more than one valid passport are reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
...
Manafort and Gates owned or controlled entities and accounts worldwide including in Cyprus, Grenadines, Seychelles and England, it said.

Manafort traveled to Mexico, China and Ecuador in 2017, prosecutors said.

Holman wrote: ↑Wed Mar 23, 2022 4:26 pm Manafort was headed for Dubai?

Perhaps this is coincidental, but just a few days ago plane-spotter Twitter was chatting about the unusual number of Russian oligarch private jets tracked leaving Moscow for Dubai.