Pardons, Commutations and Dropped Prosecutions Catch-All

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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….”
 

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
 

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.

abcnews.go.com

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.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com

“… 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.…”
 


“In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar,accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.

The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official.

But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January,according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.…”
 
nycfan said:


“In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar,accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC.

The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official.

But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January,according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.…”
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“… It’s unclear what reasons FBI and Justice Department officials gave for shutting down the investigation. But a Trump Justice Department appointee called the case a “deep state” probe in early 2025 and no further investigative steps were taken, the sources say.

… In a statement provided to MSNBC, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing. The Department’s resources must remain focused on real threats to the American people, not baseless investigations. As a result, the investigation has been closed.”

… Undercover FBI agents posing as contractors communicated and met several times last summer with a business colleague who introduced them to Homan, and with Homan himself, who indicated he would facilitate securing contracts for them in exchange for money once he was in office, according to documents and the people familiar with the case.

On Sept. 20, 2024, with hidden cameras recording the scene at a meeting spot in Texas, Homan accepted $50,000 in bills, according to an internal summary of the case and sources.

…
Several FBI and Justice officials believed that they had a strong criminal case against Homan for conspiracy to commit bribery based on recording him accepting cash and his apparent promise to assist with contracts, according to four people familiar with the probe. Homan could have been charged with a crime then, legal experts say, but his case was unusual: He was not a public official, and Trump was not president at the time he accepted money in the FBI’s undercover sting, so his actions didn’t clearly fit under a standard bribery charge.

Top officials privately debated the possible charges given Homan’s status at the time, people familiar with the case said. But several concluded it would be better for the investigation to continue to monitor his actions once he was back in public office. According to a document reviewed by MSNBC, Justice officials were eyeing four potential criminal charges in his case: conspiracy, bribery and two kinds of fraud.…”
 
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