The pardon for Mr. Bannon was described as a pre-emptive move that would effectively wipe away the charges against him, should he be convicted.... The president made the decision on Mr. Bannon after a day of frantic efforts to sway his thinking, including from Mr. Bannon himself. The White House had planned to release the list of those granted clemency earlier on Tuesday, but the debate over Mr. Bannon was part of the delay, officials said.
By late afternoon on Tuesday, advisers believed they had kept a pardon for Mr. Bannon from happening. But by around 9 p.m., Mr. Trump had changed his mind once again. Mr. Trump and Mr. Bannon spoke by phone during the day as the president was weighing the pardon, and Mr. Bannon’s allies tried to apply pressure to make it happen while his detractors pushed the president not to go ahead with it.
Mr. Bannon helped guide the president’s campaign to victory in 2016. He then had an extraordinarily messy split with Mr. Trump in August 2017, prompting him to leave the White House....
As for the rest of those pardons — no pardon for Snowdon or Assange, but Trump did pardon Li'l Wayne.
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President Trump, noted racist, also commuted the sentence of the former Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Malik Kilpatrick.
For me, this is great news. Congrats to Steve, his family and friends.
Good riddance. Now take that creepy, brooding wife of yours and fuck off to Palm Beach.
AAwww
Farmer...I hope you get what you deserve under Biden. I hope you enjoy the downfall, and enjoy the hate and violence that won't stop with corruption that wasn't quelled.
Farmer you surprise me. Your comments are generally well thought out. 30,000 Dow get you down?
Oh dear, wendybar, If you'd like to know why the GOP has been failing for 40 years, take a good look in a mirror.
@Humperdink:
Farmer you surprise me. Your comments are generally well thought out. 30,000 Dow get you down?
That's a good example of why relying on econometrics is not a great way to judge the health of a society.
p.s. Remember, there's nothing a dissident conservative hates more than the GOP.
Why would I believe anything the NYT says?
Econometrics: "the quantitative analysis of actual economic phenomena based on the concurrent development of theory and observation, related by appropriate methods of inference".
I prefer: "It's the economy, stupid". (Noted scholar/statesman/political hack James Carville 1992)
And Kwami Kilpatrick of Detroit. One in a long line of corrupt Detroit leaders. But when you look at the scale of our corrupt leaders in Washington, Kwami's case probably looked tiny. And since he already served a few years, he's getting out. That one surprised me, though.
I was hoping for Assange to get pardoned. I wanted to see the CIA/FBI people howl and scream. I guess that will not happen. They'll get their man in the end.
"But Trump did pardon Li'l Wayne."
It's hard to believe Trump went his whole term, with people calling him a racist (including Snoop, who also got there founder of Death Row Records pardoned) and it was never mentioned Donald Trump was the guy in the '80s who loaned his plane to Russell Simmons to fly to L.A. to get DefJam off the ground.
Russell Simmons didn't even say it.
I thought the world shits on me now, but - boy - did they do a master class on this President.
I wish him well.
Really bummed about Assange and Snowden.
Especially Snowden. He can't come to his home country while the people he exposed for spying on us all become richer and richer with their television and consulting contracts.
Do you all think Mitch threatened Trump, as has been reported? Do you think keeping Trump from pardoning him has been one of the reasons for the Impeachment over reaction of the past several weeks?
MayBee said...
"Really bummed about Assange and Snowden."
I never thought they would or should be pardoned. What the allure of selling us out is, I don't know, but there's a reason patriots got pissed if they thought Trump was a traitor, and it applies even more when we find the real thing. Assange got people killed and Snowden fucked himself - to tell me nothing I didn't already know - so they're a couple of devious morons who thought they were clever.
I hate people who think they're clever.
I'll feel bummed if the CIA ever leaves either of them alone.
If Trump pardoned Assange or Snowden, it would have torn at GOP constituencies.
If the Biden administration prosecutes either, it tears at Democrat constituencies.
Is it that simple?
Bannon was carrying jimmy lals documentation of chinese ties, he stood for western civilization those are the reasons he was charged.
MayBee said...Do you all think Mitch threatened Trump, as has been reported? Do you think keeping Trump from pardoning him has been one of the reasons for the Impeachment over reaction of the past several weeks?
It is a reasonable theory that fits the behavior of Republicans during the Trump administration. They were just waiting him out instead of pursuing truth and justice.
One gets the sense that what we call "The Deep State: is a coalition of self-serving politicians who are primarily concerned with their own wealth and power. They have been gaining increasing State power over the past several decades and try to destroy those who threaten that power. The persecution of Mike Flynn seems to be a good example.
Snoop, who got the founder of death row records sentence commuted, had a video of shooting Trump.
Strange world!
What strikes me the most about Trumps last batch of pardons is how they will help his image in the Black Community.
"Trump pardoning a guy indicted by the Trump Justice Dept for defrauding Trump supporters over the fake Trump wall is a fitting ending to the Trump presidency."
Total bullshit that he didn't pardon Snowden and Assange.
Assange especially. I wonder what deep state threat they held over him?
advisers believed they had kept a pardon for Mr. Bannon from happening.
What kind of a person...?
He had to pardon Steve bannon Trump would not be president without Steve bannon or kellyanne Conway.
Howard said...
"He had to pardon Steve bannon Trump would not be president without Steve bannon..."
Perhaps. But it sidesteps the moral issue of "Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time."
Urban Dictionary:
Don't do the crime, if you can't do the time.
A "hip" expression of the 1960's-70's that advises you not to do something risky unless you are willing and able to accept the full weight of the consequences.
Ironically popularized by the theme song to the TV show "Baretta" starring Robert Blake.
From the indictment, Bannon was guilty as sin. If he wasn't, Bannon wouldn't have pushed so hard for this egregious pardon.
Like Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich, sets a very bad example.
"What strikes me the most about Trump's last batch of pardons is how they will help his image in the Black Community."
His popularity will only continue to grow among Black folks. In a riot-at-the-slightest-provocation country, I'm guessing the Black zeitgeist will sour considerably during the Biden/Harris years.
"Now take that creepy, brooding wife of yours...."
A little bitchy, Farmer....
Ah well, I kind of expected he wouldn’t pardon Assange or Snowden the way I expected he wouldn’t end the wars. I’m happy about Weezy, though.
Wince is right: let Biden juggle that baggage.
Bannon just spent the last few months screwing up yet another populist movement by telling conservatives to not vote in the Senate runoffs. He should be tarred and feathered and sent back to his foreign adventures. Never mind a courtroom.
If Trump had spent less time kissing assorted Kardashian keesters and more time connecting with the working men and women who elected him, he might still be president.
Bannon was using us for his rich pals in Hong Kong, and Trump was outplayed by the soft-handed Buckleyites. The common denominator among all three is disrespect for middle-class Americans.
he supported brexit, the italian antiglobalist movement, loeffler who short sold at the top, and perdue who sought to accomodate to the new regime, miles gu opposes xi, and was targeted by the princeling connected imdb,
As always, many of the pardons seem, unclean.
Julian Assange deserved one.
The US law that makes the actions of anyone, anywhere in the world a criminal for his actions seems a crime against humanity.
Bannon lied to his contributors and the money didn't get where it was supposed to go by the time he was indicted. Was the cut he and his partners personally took greater than what other charity and foundation executives get? That I don't know.
Much of the conservative media wanted the president to pardon Snowden and Assange. Is there a "silent majority" of conservatives and Republicans who didn't want this and would be outraged? Or has hostility to the swamp and the surveillance agencies changed minds? Did opposition to the pardon just come from the Washington Establishment or was it also present in the grass roots?
It seems like there are two "realities" (or more likely, two aspects of the same reality): one in which Snowden is a traitor and Assange a national enemy, and another in which they took on some pernicious practices and corrupt institutions and revealed things that we should really know about. Which to choose, and why?
I trust nothing from the NYT.
No pardon for Assange was a mistake. He is no different than the NYT. He is a publisher; doesn't matter where he get his info.
Snowden should have gotten one too. I guess some whistleblowers are more equal than others.
People go on about Trump being a narcissist, but he did have a messy split with Bannon, and still was magnanimous enough to take his call and 'forgive' him in a sense.
An egomaniac doesn't do that.
No pardons/commutations for Assange-Snowden-Kyriakou(?).
Yep. Fuck Trump and the jet he rode in on.
Narr
And get ready for Deep State II: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.
Lurker21: Was the cut he and his partners personally took greater than what other charity and foundation executives get?
I saw a brief article earlier today from the A.P. from which I was able to extract two data points:
1. "...he allegedly diverted over a million dollars, paying a salary to one campaign official and personal expenses for himself."
2. "They raised more than $25 million from thousands of donors and pledged that 100% of the money would be used for the project."
A back of the envelope calculation suggests that he had about a 4% administrative overhead. The crime is that he said that 100% of the proceeds would be used to build the wall.
Bannon lied, and liberals want him charged with crimes. Biden lied and plagiarized, but liberals wanted him as president. Go fuck yourselves, hypocrites.
Bannon is so hated by the left and the anti-Trumpers, I doubt he could get a fair trial. So I approve of his pardon.
Damn shame no pardon for Assange. I don't fully understand the politics of the matter, but the justice of pardoning him is clear. And such an opportunity to embrace robust freedom of expression and distinguish himself even more from the political hacks and swamp creatures.
Any chance from a legal/process perspective that Trump executed Assange/Snowdon/other pardons that can be made public later (e.g. after the Impeachment vote)?
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