Trump pardoning criminals

I read this article today and found it disturbing

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/the-double-standard-of-a-trump-pardon-for-silk-road-founder-ross-ulbricht/amp

Trump is thinking about pardoning guys like ross ulbricht, the guy who created the silk road to make drug buying and selling easier. The uber of drug deals, where he gets a commission on each sale. He was sentenced to double life in prison, no parole. He was smart, well educated and from a good family. He never thought he would get caught.

In the article, the author mentions a black man who sold cocaine on a street to feed support his family. This man was sentenced to 25 years, also no parole.

The question is why bums like Ross Ulbricht get pardon when they caused so much damage when small time drug dealers get nothing. I find the whole thing ridiculous to be honest.

Drug sentencing is far too harsh, but if you're going to stick to it, at least be consistent. Don't just forgive criminals like Ross Ulbricht so easily.

Yo, Trump has taken the FIRST STEP. It's up to Biden now. Trump can pull a Clinton and do a mass pardon on his way out the door, but that will only get yo so far if the laws don't change

If Ulbricht’s supporters really cared about the war on drugs or libertarian ideals, they’d be demanding that the nearly half a million people currently in U.S. jails for drug offenses should be pardoned too.

WTF is this nonsense? Why would libertarians want the executive to make unilateral decisions on sentencing? Furthermore, Trump doesn't even have the power to pardon them! He can only pardon federal crimes. Last I checked, less than 100,000 people in federal prison for drug crimes.

Terrible article.

Care to make the connection?

I'm no fan of commuting sentences or pardons. President Trump has done very little of either during his presidency, although that could change within his final days.

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https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/news/2020/12/18/trump-pardons-his-choices-and-their-place-presidential-history/6492080002/

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Literally anyone Trump pardons will send the media and his obsessed critiques into a frenzy though, so this will be entertaining to watch and play out.

At least he didn't release 5 Taliban leaders who later killed

Curious, but how does this article claim to know what Trump is thinking about doing? More anonymous sources? If you want to freak out about this guy being released, maybe you should wait to see if it actually happens first.

@blaznwiipspman1:

Good he grows more powerful each day. I can’t wait until he declares martial law and becomes supreme chancellor.

You're right he hasn't done anything yet, hopefully these rumors are false. Pardoning Flynn is one thing, the charges were sketchy at best. Pardoning a known drug dealer, and a high level kingpin that created silk road is a totally different matter. If trump pardons this guy, while looking away at all the other people held on much smaller drug charges, then I will lose alot of respect for him.

@blaznwiipspman1: He should pardon everyone that can give him money and make him more powerful. People are just ants, who cares.

your username fits lol

Will Trump pardon the pee tape?

what's left to lose at this point?

The Founders did not consider pardoning a slew of criminals or a self-pardon as problems since they did not envision a President like that staying in office. The electoral college was supposed to weed out presidential candidates of Trump's character and the impeachment process was supposed to remove presidents who lied and abused power regularly. We all know how those turned out.

Although the Founders envisioned a rogue president, they did not envision millions of Americans and a party in full support of such a president.

What is needed is a court ruling to remove or restrict the pardon power, but barring a constitutional amendment that seems unlikely.

Wonder how many pocket pardons this criminal will give out before he's dragged out of the Oval.

Haha woah!

Yeah The Silk Roads was awesome.

I'd hire Ross.

Trump just announced pardons for those who were convincted by Mueller. Also, he gave one to Duncan Hunter, the f*cking slime ball from CA who won reelection while under investigation of stealing campaign money to finance his himself.

LOL

And they cannot take the 5th is called upon to testify against someone.

@blaznwiipspman1: I mean, Obama did the same thing.

@BlackShirt20: releasing real criminals?? I dont think so

Dude commuted more sentences than the previous 13 presidents combined

Ah yes Duncan Hunter, one of the most loathsome pieces of trash to ever walk the planet.

Thanks Trump

@vl4d_l3nin: maybe small time drug offenders but never a king pin or some ridiculous wall street blue collar criminal. Everyone knows the small time drug punishments dont fit the severity of the crime. You cant even compare it to something like this Ross ulbright who created a drug empire in his basement and made millions from the silk road by connecting drug dealers to buyers.

The human centipede continues to grow.

On top of pardoning and commuting scumbags like Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, Trump just recently pardoned George Papadopoulis and a series of Blackwater mercs who slaughtered civilians in Iraq.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/23/trump-pardons-blackwater-contractors-jailed-for-massacre-of-iraq-civilians

He hires and pardons the best people.

You're right. There is no comparison. You are comparing people Obama actually pardoned to people some fake news article, without valid, cited, sources told you Trump MIGHT pardon. Instead of getting all worked up over what hasn't even happened yet, and may never, maybe wait until something actually happens first.

oh, so you expect valid sources for stories to be believable, but no such requirement for you to believe that our election had massive voter fraud. sad

the Blackwater pardons are the most egregious. this one make the U.S. look REAL bad. this is in line with this administration's view that the U.S. military members should not be prosecuted for war crimes

Law and order president he is not.

Wait what the shit. Why would he pardon the Black Water guys?

Maybe because they have shown what they are willing to do... And he liked it?

Maybe a right winger here can play devil's advocate perhaps the evidence was flimsy.....but on the face value it seems he likes them because they killed brown people. What else can it be what the hell.

What I had in mind with my post.

De Vos's brother owns the company.

murder children, get a pardon

MAGA 2020

Oh damn. I forgot that.

Not just any children. You know his base only wants certain types dead.

Ironic that Trump is pardoning so many of his supporters who were jailed, didn’t he call himself, the “law and order president?”

That said, Trump does illustrate if you’re you’re loyal to him, he is loyal to you. That’s not actually a bad trait in normal circumstances.

Trump has alluded in the past to the notion that those working in service of the U.S. should be immune from any and all accountability, simply by virtue of who they fight for. I think he's pardoning them on that belief, not the actual merits of the particulars, which in this case, I think are pretty ironclad damning against the defendants.

Plenty of evidence for election fraud. Just because you refuse to look at it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. And just like how you fell for fake news with that, the individual this entire thread is predicated on, Ulbricht, seems to have again been more fake news since Trump released his list of pardons, and he was not on it. You people should really avoid those anonymous sources and op-eds.

The FBI, DOJ, DHS, SCOTUS, and several other federal judges disagree with you and your insane unfounded opinion. And every fact checker I know of. Even Trump's lawyers said there is no fraud in the actual court cases. There is 0 confirmed mass election fraud. There are handful of confirmed cases, and the ones I saw were Republicans voting for Trump via fraud.

Why lie man?

Three cases of trump supporters voting illegally in PA. Only voter fraud found.

@zaryia: Q told him. That's evidence in their alternate universe.

Also, has there ever been a President who has to pardon so many people around him?

Trump: "Hold my beer".

Shock And Dismay After Trump Pardons Blackwater Guards Who Killed 14 Iraqi Civilians

Seventeen Iraqi civilians, including 9- and 11-year-old boys, were killed when private contractors from the US security firm Blackwater opened fired in Baghdad's Nisour Square in 2007.

Fourteen of those killings were unjustified under the rules of the use of deadly force by security contractors, according to an FBI investigation.

Your posts never age well.

Your lies and dishonestly know no bounds. Trying to compare a shootout between four men and another group that attacked first to the release of five terrorist leaders who are responsible for the planned deaths of hundreds just shows your desperation to be the partisan hack I can always expect you to be.

Pretty low when you defend Black Water murderers.

In an ever expanding display of corruption, Trump pardons more family and friends. These include wonderful people like Paul Manafort, Charles Kushner, and Roger Stone. Previously, Stone just had his sentence commuted.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-pardons/trump-pardons-former-campaign-chairman-manafort-associate-roger-stone-idUSKBN28Y01Z

I hate this. Not just because its letting criminals off the hook. If any clearance holding contractor did what Stone, Flynn, Manafort, and Papadpoulis did, they'd be stripped of their clearance, fired, tried, hauled off the jail and nobody would blink. Because they nobody should. But because these scumbags are cozy with our morally bankrupt dear leader, they get off easy.

I think there needs to be changes to the clemency/pardoning system to prevent this kind of two dimensional corruption from happening again. Like force the pardons to require congressional approval.

He needs to declare martial law next and stay in power indefinitely.

The Nisour Square massacre was the FBI’s most comprehensive and expensive criminal investigation since 9/11. Dozens of witnesses were brought to the United States to testify about what happened on September 16, 2007. The efforts of the investigators, the prosecutors, and the men and women who supported them was immeasurable. The expense was to show the people of Iraq that the U.S. government would hold people accountable for their crimes, no matter when or where they were committed.

Slough, Liberty and Heard were convictedon multiple charges of voluntary and attempted manslaughter in 2014, while Slatten, who was the first to start shooting, was convictedof first-degree murder. Slattern was sentenced to life and the others to 30 years in prison each.