President Trump Lets Blago Family Down Yet Again
Here Are Some of the People Trump Pardoned
Steve Bannon, Anthony Levandowski and Lil Wayne were among those granted clemency in the terminal hours of the Trump administration. The former president did non announce pardons for himself or his children.
In his final hours as president, Donald J. Trump doled out pardons and commutations to dozens of people, including supporters, political figures, rappers and defendants in high-contour criminal cases.
Mr. Trump named well-nigh of the recipients on a list released by the White House early Midweek that included 73 pardons and 70 commutations. Merely the 11th-hour orders continued to brand news until almost midday, when President Biden took the oath of office.
The announcements came near a calendar month later Mr. Trump pardoned, among others, Charles Kushner, the begetter of his son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner; Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman; and Roger J. Rock Jr., his longtime breezy adviser and friend whose sentence the president had commuted in July.
Mr. Trump did not include himself on the listing of pardons, despite before suggestions that he might. Nor did he include pre-emptive pardons for his three oldest children, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, whom he had considered pardoning even though they had not been charged with wrongdoing. Too absent from the list were his son-in-law and Rudolph West. Giuliani, the quondam New York mayor and Mr. Trump's personal lawyer.
The Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution gives presidents unlimited authority to grant pardons, which excuse or forgive a federal offense. A commutation, by contrast, makes a penalisation milder without wiping out the underlying conviction.
Hither are some of the pardons and commutations on the list:
Pardon: January. 19, 2021
Stephen K. Bannon
Mr. Bannon, who was Mr. Trump's former chief strategist and an architect of his 2016 presidential entrada, was charged terminal August with defrauding contributors to a privately funded effort to build Mr. Trump'due south wall forth the Mexican border.
Mr. Bannon, working with a wounded Air Force veteran and a Florida venture capitalist, conspired to crook hundreds of thousands of donors past falsely promising that their money had been set aside for new sections of wall, according to court documents.
The pardon of Mr. Bannon was notable considering he had been charged with a law-breaking but had yet to stand trial. An overwhelming majority of pardons and commutations granted by presidents have been for those bedevilled and sentenced.
Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021
Elliott Broidy
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Mr. Broidy, a California businessman, was a leading fund-raiser for Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign and inauguration before being tapped every bit deputy finance chairman for the Republican National Committee. He pleaded guilty in Oct to conspiring to violate strange lobbying laws as office of a covert entrada to influence the Trump administration on behalf of Chinese and Malaysian interests.
Mr. Broidy admitted that he had accustomed $nine 1000000 from Jho Low, a Malaysian financier, some of which was and then paid to an associate, to push button the Trump administration for the extradition of a Chinese dissident and to drib a instance related to an embezzlement scheme from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund that the United States has accused Mr. Depression of applied science.
Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021
Anthony Levandowski
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Mr. Levandowski, a Silicon Valley star and pioneer of self-driving automobile technology, was sentenced in Baronial to eighteen months in prison house for stealing self-driving automobile merchandise secrets from Google. At the time of the sentencing, a federal judge ordered that Mr. Levandowski would not exist required to serve his sentence until the coronavirus pandemic subsided.
He also agreed to pay more than $756,000 to Waymo, a self-driving concern spun out of Google, every bit restitution.
Pardons and Commutation: Jan. 13 and Jan. 19, 2021
Kwame Kilpatrick, Robert Hayes, Rick Renzi and Randall Cunningham
Epitome
Several old political figures were among those granted clemency by Mr. Trump.
Mr. Kilpatrick, a former mayor of Detroit, had his sentence commuted. In 2013, he was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted of two dozen counts, including racketeering and extortion.
Mr. Hayes, a former chairman of the Northward Carolina Republican Political party who is known equally Robin, received a full pardon after beingness defendant in 2019 of bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, forth with several counts of making false statements. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 1 year of probation.
Mr. Renzi, a former representative for Arizona, was pardoned. In 2013, he was sentenced to 36 months in prison house in clan with a bribery scheme involving an Arizona land bandy deal.
Mr. Cunningham, a former representative for California known as Duke, received a conditional pardon. In 2006, he was sentenced to eight years and four months in prison for taking $2.4 1000000 in bribes from military contractors in return for smoothing the way for government contracts.
Pardon: Jan. 19, 2021
Lil Wayne
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In Dec, the rapper Lil Wayne, born Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty to having illegally carried a gold-plated .45-caliber Glock handgun and armament as a felon while traveling on a private jet in 2019.
Because of a previous gun conviction, he faced up to x years in prison. He received a full pardon.
In October, Lil Wayne became the latest in a line of rappers to align themselves, withal briefly, with Mr. Trump's re-ballot campaign, only to face up criticism from fans and fellow artists.
Substitution: Jan. 19, 2021
Kodak Black
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The rapper Kodak Black, whose legal name is Neb Kapri (though he was born Dieuson Octave), was granted a commutation. In 2019, he was sentenced to about four years in prison for lying on groundwork paperwork while attempting to buy guns. He had served near half of that time.
In improver to Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, two other figures related to the world of hip-hop were besides granted clemency by Mr. Trump. Desiree Perez, the chief executive of Roc Nation, the media company started by the rapper Jay-Z, was given a full pardon after being convicted in a drug conspiracy case in the 1990s. And Michael Harris, known as Harry-O, 59, a founder and early fiscal backer of Expiry Row Records, received a commuted sentence. He had served 30 years of a 25-year-to-life judgement for conspiracy to commit starting time-caste murder.
Pardons AND Substitution: Jan. xix AND JAN. 20, 2021
Ken Kurson, Helly Nahmad, Albert J. Pirro Jr. and Sholam Weiss
Mr. Trump also granted clemency to men who had been prominent in business organization, art and media circles in his hometown, New York City.
Ken Kurson, a friend and acquaintance of Jared Kushner — who in one case appointed him editor in chief of The New York Observer — was one of them. Harassment allegations against Mr. Kurson surfaced in 2018 while he was nether consideration for a seat on the lath of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he was arrested late terminal yr on cyberstalking charges. Marc L. Mukasey, Mr. Kurson'south defence lawyer, said that he had no role in Mr. Kurson's pardon application, and that his client had planned to plead not guilty.
Mr. Trump besides pardoned one of New York's best-known art dealers, Hillel Nahmad, known as Helly, a member of a wealthy, influential family unit of fine art collectors. He had served five months in federal prison in 2014 later pleading guilty to a charge that he had led a sports gambling ring, which investigators said had ties to Russian-American organized crime figures.
In the hour earlier his term expired, Mr. Trump too pardoned Albert J. Pirro Jr., an administration official said. Mr. Pirro, a Republican businessman and the ex-husband of Jeanine F. Pirro, the Fox News host, was bedevilled in 2000 of conspiracy and tax evasion and sentenced to 29 months in a federal prison.
And Mr. Trump commuted the sentence of Sholam Weiss, the New York businessman who was sentenced in 2000 to more than 800 years in prison house — which was believed to exist the longest federal prison term always imposed — for racketeering, wire fraud and coin laundering related to a huge insurance fraud scheme.
Other Pardons and Commutations
Some of the others who received clemency in the terminal days of Mr. Trump's term:
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Dr. Salomon E. Melgen, 66, a major Democratic donor and middle doctor who ran a series of clinics in Florida that fraudulently told Medicare patients that they had eye diseases and then performed medically unnecessary tests and procedures, falsely billing the federal government at least $42 million, co-ordinate to prosecutors. His remaining prison sentence was commuted.
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William T. Walters, a wealthy sports gambler, had his judgement commuted. A jury convicted Mr. Walters in 2017 on charges related to his role in an insider-trading scheme, and he was sentenced to v years in prison. Mr. Walters hired Mr. Trump's onetime personal lawyer John M. Dowd in 2018, after he stopped representing Mr. Trump, The New York Times reported this week. Mr. Dowd bragged to Mr. Walters and others that he could help them receive a pardon because of his close relationship with the president.
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Paul Erickson, the former fellow of the Russian operative Maria Butina, who was briefly pulled into the investigation of Mr. Trump by Robert Southward. Mueller Three, the special counsel. Mr. Erickson was bedevilled final July of wire fraud and money laundering and sentenced to 84 months in prison on charges that related to his work in 2017 on a business deal in the Bakken oil fields of North Dakota.
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George Gilmore, a New Jersey Republican power broker, who was convicted terminal January of failure to file payroll taxes for employees and making a false statement on a loan awarding, was also given a full pardon.
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Eliyahu Weinstein, who was sentenced to more than twenty years in prison in 2014 for a real estate Ponzi scheme that prosecutors said caused $200 million in losses, had his remaining jail sentence commuted.
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Robert Zangrillo, a Miami real manor developer who was charged with conspiring with a higher consultant to ransom athletic officials at the University of Southern California to designate his daughter as a recruit to the crew squad, received a pardon. Dozens of parents were charged in the example; Mr. Zangrillo had pleaded not guilty and was set to stand trial on multiple fraud and conspiracy charges in September. His lawyer declined to comment on Wednesday.
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Aviem Sella, a erstwhile Israeli Air Force officer who was indicted by the United States in 1987 on espionage charges that he recruited the convicted spy Jonathan Jay Pollard to collect U.South. military secrets for Israel. Simply Israel never agreed to extradite him to the Usa, and he has now been pardoned.
Hither are pardons and commutations issued earlier in Mr. Trump's term:
Pardon: Dec. 23, 2020
Paul Manafort
Epitome
Mr. Manafort, 71, had been sentenced in 2019 to seven and a half years in prison for his office in a decade-long, multimillion-dollar fiscal fraud scheme for his work in the quondam Soviet Marriage. He was released early from prison house in May as a result of the coronavirus pandemic and given home solitude. Mr. Trump had repeatedly expressed sympathy for Mr. Manafort, describing him as a brave man who had been mistreated by the special counsel'southward part.
Pardon: Dec. 23, 2020, Exchange: July 10, 2020
Roger J. Stone Jr.
Prototype
Mr. Stone, a longtime friend and adviser of Mr. Trump, was sentenced in Feb 2020 to more 3 years in prison house in a politically fraught case that put the president at odds with his attorney general. Mr. Rock was convicted of seven felony charges, including lying under oath to a congressional committee and threatening a witness whose testimony would have exposed those lies.
Mr. Trump commuted Mr. Stone'southward sentence in July and then pardoned him in December. A White House statement said that Mr. Stone had been "treated very unfairly" and added that "pardoning him volition help to correct the injustices he faced at the hands of the Mueller investigation."
Pardon: Dec. 23, 2020
Charles Kushner
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Mr. Kushner, 66, the father-in-law of the president's older daughter, Ivanka Trump, pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, a single count of retaliating against a federal witness and one of lying to the Federal Ballot Commission. He served two years in prison earlier being released in 2006.
Mr. Kushner'due south prison house sentence was a searing outcome in his family'southward life.
The witness he was accused of retaliating confronting was his brother-in-police force, whose wife, Mr. Kushner's sis, was cooperating with federal officials in a campaign finance investigation into Mr. Kushner. Mr. Kushner was defendant of videotaping his brother-in-police force with a prostitute then sending it to his sis.
The case was prosecuted by then-U.Southward. Attorney Chris Christie, a longtime Trump friend who went on to become governor of New Bailiwick of jersey.
PARDON: December. 22, 2020
George Papadopoulos and Alex van der Zwaan
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George Papadopoulos, a strange policy adviser to Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign, pleaded guilty in 2017 to making simulated statements to federal officials as role of the investigation by the special counsel, Robert Due south. Mueller III.
Mr. Papadopoulos served 12 days in jail for lying to the F.B.I. virtually his contacts with Russian intermediaries during the 2016 presidential race. He afterward published a book portraying himself as a victim of a "deep state" plot to "bring downwards President Trump."
Likewise pardoned was Alex van der Zwaan, a lawyer who was sentenced in April 2018 to thirty days in prison house for lying to investigators for the special counsel'south office who were investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
PARDON: December. 22, 2020
Duncan Hunter, Chris Collins and Steve Stockman
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3 former Republican members of Congress were pardoned by Mr. Trump: Duncan Hunter of California, Chris Collins of New York and Steve Stockman of Texas.
Mr. Hunter was set to begin serving an 11-month sentence in Jan. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to one accuse of misusing campaign funds. Prosecutors said he had funneled more than $150,000 from his campaign coffers to pay for a lavish lifestyle.
On Dec. 23, Mr. Trump pardoned Margaret Hunter, Mr. Hunter's estranged wife, who had also pleaded guilty to charges of misusing campaign funds for personal expenses.
Mr. Collins, an early endorser of Mr. Trump, is serving a 26-month sentence afterward pleading guilty in 2019 to charges of making fake statements to the F.B.I. and to conspiring to commit securities fraud. He admitted passing individual information about an Australian drug company to his son to help him avoid financial losses.
Mr. Stockman was bedevilled in 2018 on charges of fraud and coin laundering and was serving a 10-year judgement. He was charged with stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars meant for clemency and using information technology to pay for personal expenses and his political campaigns.
Pardon: Nov. 25, 2020
Michael T. Flynn
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Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser who twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat, and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down, was the just White House official to be convicted every bit office of the Trump-Russia investigation.
In a statement about Mr. Flynn's pardon, White House officials said he never should have been prosecuted and that the president'southward action had finally brought "to an end the relentless, partisan pursuit of an innocent man."
PARDON: DEC. 22, 2020
Nicholas Slatten
Paradigm
Mr. Trump issued full pardons to Nicholas Slatton and iii other one-time U.S. service members who were bedevilled on charges related to the killing of Iraqi civilians while they were working as security contractors for Blackwater, a individual company, in 2007.
Mr. Slatten and the others — Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard — were sentenced for their office in the killing of 17 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square in Baghdad. The massacre that left 1 of the most lasting stains of the war on the U.s.a.. Among the dead were two boys, 8 and 11.
Mr. Slatten had been sentenced to life in prison subsequently the Justice Department had gone to slap-up lengths to prosecute him.
Pardon: Aug. 25, 2017
Joe Arpaio
Paradigm
Joe Arpaio, an anti-immigration crusader who enjoyed calling himself "America's toughest sheriff," was the offset pardon of Mr. Trump's presidency.
One time one of the almost popular — and divisive — figures in Arizona, Mr. Arpaio was elected sheriff of Maricopa Canton 5 times earlier he was ultimately charged with criminal contempt for defying a court order to stop detaining people solely on the suspicion that they were undocumented immigrants. Mr. Arpaio was pardoned less than a calendar month after he was constitute guilty.
Pardon: May 15, 2019
Conrad M. Black
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Conrad G. Blackness, a former press businesswoman and friend of Mr. Trump'southward, was granted a total pardon 12 years subsequently his sentencing for fraud and obstacle of justice.
Mr. Black, who once endemic The Chicago Sun-Times, The Jerusalem Post and The Daily Telegraph of London, among other newspapers, was convicted of fraud in 2007 with three other erstwhile executives of Hollinger International.
Mr. Black, who was released from prison in 2012, is the author of several pro-Trump opinion articles equally well as a flattering book, "Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other."
COMMUTATION: February. xviii, 2020
Rod R. Blagojevich
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Pardon: May 31, 2018
Dinesh D'Souza
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Dinesh D'Souza received a presidential pardon after pleading guilty to making illegal campaign contributions in 2014. Mr. D'Souza, a filmmaker and author whose subjects often dabble in conspiracy theories, had long blamed his conviction on his political opposition to Mr. Obama.
In issuing his pardon, Mr. Trump said that Mr. D'Souza had been "treated very unfairly by our government," echoing a claim the commentator has often fabricated himself.
Pardon: Feb. eighteen, 2020
Edward J. DeBartolo Jr.
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Edward J. DeBartolo Jr., a sometime possessor of the San Francisco 49ers, pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion plot. Mr. DeBartolo was prosecuted after he gave Edwin W. Edwards, the influential former governor of Louisiana, $400,000 to secure a riverboat gambling license for his gambling consortium.
Although Mr. DeBartolo avoided prison, he was fined $1 meg and was suspended for a yr by the Northward.F.L.
commutation: June half-dozen, 2018; Pardon: Aug. 28, 2019
Alice Marie Johnson
Paradigm
Alice Marie Johnson was serving life in a federal prison for a nonviolent drug conviction before her case was brought to Mr. Trump's attention by the reality television star Kim Kardashian West.
The president's determination to commute her judgement freed Ms. Johnson, who had been locked up in Alabama since 1996 on charges related to cocaine distribution and money laundering. Mr. Trump after pardoned Ms. Johnson on Aug. 28, 2019.
Pardons: 2018-xx
Jack Johnson, Susan B. Anthony, Zay Jeffries
Mr. Trump has issued posthumous pardons to three historical figures.
Jack Johnson, the first Blackness heavyweight boxing champion, was tarnished by a racially tainted criminal confidence in 1913 — for transporting a white woman across state lines — that haunted him well subsequently his death in 1946. Mr. Trump pardoned him on May 24, 2018.
Susan B. Anthony, the women's suffragist, was arrested in Rochester, N.Y., in 1872 for voting illegally and was fined $100. Mr. Trump pardoned her on Aug. xviii, the 100th ceremony of the ratification of 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women.
Zay Jeffries, a metal scientist whose contributions to the Manhattan Project and whose development of armor-piercing artillery shells helped the Allies win World War II, was granted a posthumous pardon on October. 10, 2019. Jeffries was establish guilty in 1948 of an antitrust violation related to his piece of work and was fined $two,500.
Pardon: Feb. 18, 2020
Bernard B. Kerik
Epitome
Ten years ago, Bernard B. Kerik, a former New York City police force commissioner, was sentenced to four years in prison after pleading guilty to viii felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials.
Mr. Trump said he heard from more than a dozen people about pardoning Mr. Kerik, including Mr. Giuliani. Mr. Kerik'south rising to prominence dates to the 1993 campaign for mayor in New York Urban center, when he served every bit Mr. Giuliani's bodyguard and chauffeur. After the pardon was announced, Mr. Kerik expressed his gratitude to Mr. Trump on Twitter. "With the exception of the birth of my children," he wrote, "today is ane of the greatest days in my life."
Pardon: April thirteen, 2018
Scooter Libby
I. Lewis Libby Jr., known as Scooter, was Vice President Dick Cheney's pinnacle adviser before Mr. Libby was convicted in 2007 of 4 felony counts, including perjury and obstruction of justice, in connexion with the disclosure of the identity of a C.I.A. officer, Valerie Plame.
Mr. Libby had maintained his innocence for years, and his portrayal as a victim of an unfair prosecution ultimately institute favor with Mr. Trump.
Pardon: November. 15, 2019
Clint Lorance, Maj. Mathew 50. Golsteyn, Main Petty Officer Edward Gallagher
Mr. Trump'south conclusion to clear three members of the armed forces who had been accused or bedevilled of state of war crimes signaled that the president intended to use his power as the ultimate czar of military justice.
He ordered full pardons of Clint Lorance, a sometime Army lieutenant who was serving a 19-year sentence for the murder of ii civilians, and Maj. Mathew Fifty. Golsteyn, an Ground forces Special Forces officer who was facing murder charges for killing an unarmed Afghan he believed was a Taliban flop maker.
The president also reversed the demotion of Chief Little Officer Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who had been acquitted of murder charges but convicted of a bottom offense in a high-contour war crimes case.
All 3 had been championed past prominent conservatives who had portrayed them equally war heroes unfairly prosecuted for deportment taken in the heat and defoliation of battle.
Pardon: Feb. eighteen, 2020
Michael R. Milken
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Michael R. Milken was the billionaire "junk bond rex" and a well-known financier on Wall Street in the 1980s. In 1990, he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and conspiracy charges and was sentenced to 10 years in prison, though his judgement was later on reduced to two. He also agreed to pay $600 1000000 in fines and penalties.
Mr. Milken did not have a pardon or commutation awarding awaiting at the Justice Section's pardons office, meaning that the president fabricated that decision entirely without official department input. Among those arguing for Mr. Milken to be pardoned was Mr. Giuliani, who as the U.Due south. attorney for the Southern District of New York prosecuted Mr. Milken.
Pardon: July 10, 2018
Dwight L. Hammond and Steven D. Hammond
Dwight Hammond and his son, Steven Hammond, were Oregon cattle ranchers who had been serving five-twelvemonth sentences for arson on federal land. Their cases inspired an antigovernment group'due south weekslong collision at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon in 2016 and brought widespread attending to anger over federal land management in the Western The states.
The occupation, led by the Bundy family, drew militia members who commandeered authorities buildings and vehicles in tactical gear and long guns, promising to defend the family. During his entrada, Mr. Trump played to that sense of Western grievance, and the pardon of the Hammonds was a indicate to conservatives that he was sympathetic.
Pardon: Feb. xviii, 2020
David H. Safavian
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David H. Safavian, the top federal procurement official under President George W. Bush, was sentenced in 2009 to a twelvemonth in prison for covering up his ties to Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist whose corruption became a symbol of the excesses of Washington influence peddling. Mr. Safavian was convicted of obstacle of justice and making false statements.
Pardon: Feb. eighteen, 2020
Angela Stanton
Paradigm
Angela Stanton — an author, tv set personality and motivational speaker — served 6 months of domicile solitude in 2007 for her role in a stolen-vehicle band. Her book "Life of a Existent Housewife" explores her difficult upbringing and her encounters with reality TV stars.
Before her pardon, she gave interviews in which she declared her support for Mr. Trump. In announcing her pardon, the White Business firm credited her with working "tirelessly to amend re-entry outcomes for people returning to their communities upon release from prison house."
Reporting was contributed by Sarah Bahr , Joe Coscarelli , Marie Fazio , Jacey Fortin , Maggie Haberman , Michael Levenson , Eric Lipton , Christina Morales , Heather Murphy , Bryan Pietsch , Katie Rogers , Michael South. Schmidt , Derrick Bryson Taylor , Kate Taylor , Neil Vigdor , Kenneth P. Vogel and Benjamin Weiser .
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/article/who-did-trump-pardon.html
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