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2025-Jan-20 | By: Barry Shatzman |
President Joe Biden has commuted the sentence of Native American rights activist Leonard Peltier.
In 1977 Peltier was convicted of the 1975 killing two federal agents on Native American lands, though his prosecution was suspect. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has long argued for his release - as late as for his 2024 unsuccessful parole hearing.
He will be released from prison, though he will be required to remain in home detention.
For more, read the USA Today article.
2024-Dec-01 | By: Barry Shatzman |
President Joe Biden has pardoned his son, Hunter Biden.
The Charges against Hunter Biden
In June, Hunter Biden was convicted of lying about his addiction to controlled substances on a federal background check form and for possessing the gun for 11 days while he was addicted.
In September, he pleaded guilty to failing to pay almost $1.5 million in federal taxes from 2016 - 2019.
He had yet to be sentenced, though both cases could have resulted in prison time.
Pardon covers more than those crimes
In his pardon statement, Joe Biden states that the pardons cover more than those two crimes. It protects Hunter Biden from being prosecuted for any federal crimes "which he has committed or may have committed" from 2014 through Dec. 1, 2024.
Joe Biden was Vice President from 2009 - 2017.
Plea deal had been reached - and rescinded
In June 2023, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty .
That plea deal was rejected in July by Judge Maryellen Noreika,
More investigations into Hunter Biden
In January 2023, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee began an investigation into Hunter Biden's association with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
The stated justification for the investigation was to link Hunter Biden's activities with Burisma to bribery and influence of his father.
The investigation found no credible evidence of criminal activity by Joe Biden.
Click here to read the signing statement from Biden.
Click here to read the indictment against Biden regarding the gun charge.
Click here to read the indictment against Biden regarding the tax evasion charge.
2020-Jul-10 | By: Barry Shatzman |
President Trump has commuted the sentence of longtime friend Roger Stone.
In 2019, Stone was convicted of lying to Congress and other charges related to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. He was sentenced to 40 months in prison.
The statement by the White House Press Secretary described the charges against Stone as "process-based" - leveled "in an attempt to manufacture the false impression of criminality lurking below the surface."
It also questioned the impartiality of the jury that convicted him of the charges.
In a letter published in the Washington Post, former Special Counsel Robert Mueller responded to the commutation, saying that Stone was convicted "because he committed federal crimes."
Mueller wrote...
"Stone became a central figure in our investigation for two key reasons: He communicated in 2016 with individuals known to us to be Russian intelligence officers, and he claimed advance knowledge of WikiLeaks' release of emails stolen by those Russian intelligence officers...
A jury later determined he lied repeatedly to members of Congress. He lied about the identity of his intermediary to WikiLeaks. He lied about the existence of written communications with his intermediary. He lied by denying he had communicated with the Trump campaign about the timing of WikiLeaks' releases. He in fact updated senior campaign officials repeatedly about WikiLeaks. And he tampered with a witness, imploring him to stonewall Congress."
Click here to read the White House announcement.
Click here to read Mueller's comments regarding the commutation of Stone's sentence.
For more, read the NPR story.
Click here for more on pardons issued by Trump.
2019-Jul-29  (Updated: 2019-Aug-26) | By: Barry Shatzman |
Ted Suhl - convicted in 2016 of defrauding Medicaid out of millions of dollars and of bribing a state official to keep the scheme going - has had his 7-year sentence commuted by President Donald Trump.
Suhl owned a youth mental health facility originally named The Lord's Ranch. The facility had been under investigation since 1990 for physically abusing patients who opted out of bible study.
To steer patients to his facility and to keep it licensed, Suhl bribed then Arkansas deputy Department of Human Services Director Steven Jones, disguising the money as donations to a church. In 2014, Jones pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from Suhl over several years.
The bribes not only steered patients (and therefore Medicaid dollars) to Suhl, they also helped get Suhl appointed to the Child Welfare Agency Review Board - which licensed Suhl's facilities.
Suhl has been a financial supporter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. Huckabee, who has flown on Suhl's plane, had lobbied Trump to commute Suhl's sentence.
For more on Suhl's crimes and conviction, read this Aransas Times story and this Arkansas Democrat Gazette story.
For more on Trump's commutation of Suhl's sentence, read the Arkansas Times story.
Click here to read the White House statement on the pardon with clarifications by ProPublica.
2019-May-06 | By: Barry Shatzman |
President Donald Trump has pardoned a former soldier who murdered an Iraqi prisoner.
Michael Behenna was convicted of taking the detainee to a secluded area while transporting him back to his village, and then stripping him naked and shooting him. He claimed he was acting in self-defense.
Behenna had served five years in prison, and was on parole at the time of the pardon.
For more, read the Washington Post story.
Click here to read the White House Press Secretary statement on the pardon.
2018-Mar-09  (Updated: 2018-Mar-15) | By: Rob Dennis |
President Donald Trump has pardoned a Navy sailor convicted of illegally retaining photos of a submarine's nuclear propulsion system.
Kristian Saucier, a machinist's mate aboard the USS Alexandria from 2007 to 2012, used his cell-phone camera to take six photos in 2009 while the nuclear submarine was docked at a Connecticut naval base. Saucier said he took the photos as mementos. The photos were deemed confidential, the lowest level of security classification.
After the FBI questioned Saucier about the images on the phone, which had been found in a landfill, he destroyed evidence related to the case.
Saucier, 31, pleaded guilty in May 2016 to unlawful retention of national defense information and obstruction of justice, and served 12 months in prison. His sentence ended in September.
Trump frequently referred to Saucier's case during the 2016 presidential campaign, claiming he had been punished for a lesser offense than Hillary Clinton, who mishandled classified information on a private email server when she was secretary of state.
Saucier's pardon was the second of Trump's presidency. He previously pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, a political ally who was awaiting sentencing for violating a court order.
For more, read this Stars and Stripes story and this NPR story.
2017-Aug-25 | By: Barry Shatzman |
President Trump has pardoned an Arizona sheriff convicted of ignoring a federal judge's orders.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio had ordered Latinos be detained simply because they could not show legal status. A federal judge ruled that the practice involved racial profiling because it involved only Latinos - who were stopped for traffic violations at a much higher rate than other drivers - and ordered Arpaio to end the practice. Yet Arpaio continued the detentions for the next 1-1/2 years.
Lawsuits regarding brutality against detainees since Arpaio became sheriff in 1993 have cost Arizona taxpayers $140 million.
Arpaio was convicted of criminal contempt. He had yet to be sentenced - nor had he used an opportunity to appeal - when Trump issued the pardon.
Trump had asked about rescuing Arpaio - who has been a long-time Trump supporter - from his legal situation even before he was convicted. Had Arpaio wanted to request a pardon, he would have been required to wait five years from the date he completed his sentence.
The two-paragraph statement from Trump did not provide the reason he pardoned Arpaio.
It is likely the Justice Department was not consulted between Arpaio's conviction and the time of the pardon.
Click here to read the White House statement on the pardon.
For more, read the Atlantic story.
For more on the oddities of this pardon, read Bob Bauer's Lawfare editorial.
Click here for a Phoenix New Times summary of Arpaio's acts.