I think a pardon would certainly be warranted here. We’ll see.
Pardons, Commutations and Dropped Prosecutions Catch-All
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superrific
Legend of ZZL
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I didn't say he should get life. But obviously the judge disagreed with you. Which isn't a surprise because what he did was wrong and should be punished. I'm not sure how "my own insecurities" whatever you have in mind relates to anything on this thread but whatever.
33 months is a pretty light sentence, I would think -- but since I am not intimately familiar with the evidence introduced, I will refrain from offering anything more this offhand remark. One day was comical.
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Officer Involved in Death of Breonna Taylor Sentenced to Nearly 3 Years in Prison
The Justice Department had sought a one-day prison sentence for Brett Hankison
—> https://www.wsj.com/us-news/law/bre...f?st=1AaLLH&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalinkOne day may be one more than he actually serves. Odds are pretty good that Trump pardons before Harkinson is due to report to prison.
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“… In a motion filed late Tuesday, federal prosecutors sought to dismiss an indictment accusing Andrew Wiederhorn, ex-CEO of the company that owns the Fatburger and Johnny Rockets chains, of carrying out a $47 million “sham loan” scheme.
Prosecutors also sought to dismiss charges against L.A. County sheriff’s deputy Trevor Kirk, who has already been convicted and sentenced in an excessive force case after he attacked a woman in a supermarket parking lot in 2023.
… Days before Essayli’s initial appointment in April, Adam Schleifer, the assistant U.S. attorney handling the criminal case against Wiederhorn, was fired at the behest of the White House.
Schleifer alleged in appealing the decision that his firing was motivated in part by his prosecution of Wiederhorn, a Trump donor who has maintained his innocence.…”
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DOJ drops charges against Fat Brands, chair Andy Wiederhorn
The restaurant company and Wiederhorn were indicted more than a year ago for an alleged "sham" loan scheme.
“… In May 2024, the company and Wiederhorn were indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to what prosecutors alleged was a "sham" loan scheme that netted Wiederhorn $47 million.
… Wiederhorn has maintained his innocence since he was indicted. He was previously convicted about two decades ago for filing a false tax return and paying an illegal gratuity to an associate, serving more than a year in federal prison.
… In March, the White House fired Adam Schleifer, the assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who led the prosecution against Wiederhorn. Schleifer later alleged that his dismissal was the result of a smear campaign against him led by Wiederhorn.
Despite the turnover, Justice Department officials in California told The Oregonian in April that the prosecution against Fat Brands and Wiederhorn would continue.
Months earlier, the company donated $100,000 to Trump's inauguration fund….”
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DOJ drops charges against Fat Brands, chair Andy Wiederhorn
The restaurant company and Wiederhorn were indicted more than a year ago for an alleged "sham" loan scheme.www.cnbc.com
“… In May 2024, the company and Wiederhorn were indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to what prosecutors alleged was a "sham" loan scheme that netted Wiederhorn $47 million.
… Wiederhorn has maintained his innocence since he was indicted. He was previously convicted about two decades ago for filing a false tax return and paying an illegal gratuity to an associate, serving more than a year in federal prison.
… In March, the White House fired Adam Schleifer, the assistant U.S. attorney in Los Angeles who led the prosecution against Wiederhorn. Schleifer later alleged that his dismissal was the result of a smear campaign against him led by Wiederhorn.
Despite the turnover, Justice Department officials in California told The Oregonian in April that the prosecution against Fat Brands and Wiederhorn would continue.
Months earlier, the company donated $100,000 to Trump's inauguration fund….”
“… As chief executive of Fat Brands, Wiederhorn, 58, allegedly directed the company to loan its own funds to him, with no intention of ever paying the “sham” loans back, according to the indictment.
The SEC alleges that Wiederhorn then used the cash to pay for private jets, first-class airfare, luxury vacations, mortgage and rent payments, plus nearly $700,000 in “shopping and jewelry.”
… Wiederhorn’s alleged fraud accounted for roughly 44% of Fat Brands’ revenue between 2017 and 2021, which meant the company often was not able to pay its bills. In those situations, Wiederhorn would allegedly redirect funds from credit cards paid for by Fat Brands back to the company with assistance from his son Thayer, who was then the company’s chief marketing officer and is now its chief operating officer.
Fat Brands never disclosed the cash transfers as related party transactions to investors. In 2020, the cash transfers were written off after the company’s merger with Fog Cutter Capital Group, Fat Brands’ largest shareholder, which also happened to be majority owned by Wiederhorn, according to the SEC complaint.
… Additionally, as far back as 2006, Wiederhorn has owed taxes for his personal income to the IRS. He also did not report any of the so-called loans from Fat Brands as income, according to the indictment. As of March 2021, Wiederhorn owed $7.74 million to the IRS for his unpaid personal taxes….”
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—> Trump’s Selective Stance on Justice: Redemption for Some, Scorn for Others“… On his first day, Mr. Trump pardoned thousands of his supporters who were arrested and charged for taking part in a violent mob at the Capitol, assaulting the police, smashing windows, ransacking offices and threatening to hang his vice president. Some had prior criminal records, for offenses like rape, manslaughter and possession of child sexual abuse material, according to an investigation by NPR. “They’ve already been in jail for a long time,” the president said. “These people have been destroyed.”
Two days later, he pardoned Washington police officers who were convicted on charges related to a car chase that killed a young Black man in 2020, that they later tried to cover up. Mr. Trump suggested the officers were the victims in the case, and falsely claimed that the man was an illegal immigrant. “And I guess something happened where something went wrong, and they arrested the two officers and put them in jail for going after a criminal,” he said.
Mr. Trump also removed penalties against an Israeli settler with a history of violence, calling the sanctions “deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal and radical practices.” The settler is now accused of killing a well-known Palestinian activist whose work was featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “No Other Land.”
The administration negotiated the release of a man who had been convicted of killing three people from a Venezuelan prison, even as the president ramped up his campaign to deport immigrants in the name of public safety.
And when he pardoned a former sheriff from Virginia — a vocal supporter of his — who was convicted of selling deputy positions in his department, Mr. Trump called him a “victim of an overzealous Biden Department of Justice, and doesn’t deserve to spend a single day in jail.” Instead, the president proclaimed, he would “have a wonderful and productive life.”…
…The Justice Department paid nearly $5 million to settle a wrongful-death suit brought by the family of a Jan. 6 rioter, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by the police while trying to breach a barricaded door by the House chamber. Mr. Trump called the Black officer, who was found to have been justified in the shooting, a “thug.”
Two months later, the agency asked a federal judge to sentence a white police officer convicted in the 2020 killing of Breonna Taylor to only one day in prison. Ms. Taylor, a Black, 26-year-old emergency room technician, was shot in her own home after the police executed a botched raid on her apartment….”
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Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge
In its campaign of “uprooting the foot soldiers,” the Trump Justice Department has fired or demoted more than two dozen Jan. 6 prosecutors, even as those they sent to prison walk free. —> Reframing Jan. 6: After the Pardons, the Purge
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DOJ drops charges against another client of AG Pam Bondi's brother Brad
A DOJ spokesperson says AG Pam Bondi "had no role" in the decision.
DOJ drops charges against another client of AG Pam Bondi's brother Brad
For the second time in less than a month, the DOJ has dropped charges against a client represented by Brad Bondi, the brother of U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
“… Federal prosecutors in Missouri this week agreed to voluntarily dismiss an indictment against Sid Chakraverty, a property developer who faced felony wire fraud charges. Prosecutors under the Biden administration accused Chakraverty in 2024 of lying about hiring women- and minority-owned subcontractors on a housing development in order to allegedly secure favorable tax incentives.
As recently as three weeks ago, career prosecutors held that Chakraverty should face criminal penalties for his alleged scheme.
But on Wednesday, the newly installed U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, Thomas Albus, a Trump appointee, filed court papers informing the judge overseeing the case that the "defendants have agreed to make restitution of the taxes" and that it is therefore "prudent for the government to end this criminal prosecution."
In his letter to the judge, Albus explained that the decision to drop charges was part of a department-wide directive to no longer prosecute cases against those accused of violating "race- and sex-based presumptions like the [disadvantaged business enterprise] program" in St. Louis.
The development comes just weeks after federal prosecutors in Florida agreed to drop chargesagainst Carolina Amesty, another client of Brad Bondi, who faced two counts of theft of government property related to alleged COVID relief fraud.
Amesty had hired Brad Bondi in December 2024, shortly after his sister, Pam Bondi, was tapped by President Donald Trump to serve as attorney general.…”
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Move fast and break everything