President Donald Trump issues dozens of pardons just hours before Joe Biden's inauguration |
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President Trump issued dozens of pardons on his last night in the White House. The pardons came hours before Joe Biden was due to be inaugurated as president. One of the pardons went to Trump's 2016 campaign chief and former White House senior advisor Steve Bannon, who was accused of defrauding donors to a group that said it planned to build a border wall with Mexico. The rapper Lil Wayne and Republican fundraiser Elliott Broidy also received pardons, while former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the rapper Kodak Black had their prison terms commuted. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi
President Donald Trump issued dozens of pardons on his last night in the White House, including one to his former campaign chief and ex-White House advisor, Steve Bannon, who was charged with swindling donors to a supposed effort to build a wall on the border with Mexico. Trump issued 73 pardons, including for Elliott Broidy, a major Republican fundraiser who pleaded guilty last fall to acting as an unregistered foreign agent, and the rapper Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty to a weapons charge last month. Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been serving a 28-year prison sentence for fraud charges, had his sentence commuted by Trump, as did Eliyahu Weinstein, who had 16 years left to serve on a sentence in a case where he swindled hundreds of millions of dollars from victims in a New Jersey-based Ponzi scheme. Another rapper, Kodak Black, who has been serving a three-year prison term for weapons-related charges, had his sentence commuted as well. A total of 67 other people had their criminal sentences commuted by Trump. Trump did not issue a pardon to himself, or to any of his adult children, despite speculation he would do so despite the lack of any pending federal criminal charges against any of them. Bannon, former head of the conservative news site Breitbart, was arrested last year with several co-defendants on federal charges in New York but had yet to stand trial. He was free on a $5 million bond. He and the other defendants are accused of defrauding donors to a nonprofit group that ostensibly planned to use the money to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, a political obsession of Trump and many of his supporters. Another pardon recipient was Anthony Levandowski, a former engineer for Google’s self-driving car unit, who last August was sentenced to 18 months in prison for stealing more than 14,000 Google files before leaving the company to join Uber’s robocar effort. The sentencing judge in Levandowski’s case called it the “biggest trade-secret crime I have ever seen.” Kenneth Kurson, a confidante of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, also received a pardon. Kurson, who once was editor of a Kushner-owned newspaper in New York, was charged last year in Brooklyn federal court with cyberstalking and harassing three people, including a former friend whom he blamed for the break-up of his marriage. Another pardon recipient was the conservative political operative Paul Erickson, a former boyfriend of the secret Kremlin agent Maria Butina. Erickson was sentenced in July to seven years in prison for wire fraud and money laundering. The pardons were the third big group of grants of executive clemency issued by Trump since his election loss in November to Joe Biden, who is set to be inaugurated as president at midday ET Wednesday. In December, Trump pardoned a rogue’s gallery of felons connected to him, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Republican political operative and longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, and former campaign advisor George Papadopoulos. » Subscribe to CNBC TV: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCtelevision » Subscribe to CNBC: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBC » Subscribe to CNBC Classic: https://cnb.cx/SubscribeCNBCclassic Turn to CNBC TV for the latest stock market news and analysis. From market futures to live price updates CNBC is the leader in business news worldwide. The News with Shepard Smith is CNBC’s daily news podcast providing deep, non-partisan coverage and perspective on the day’s most important stories. Available to listen by 8:30pm ET / 5:30pm PT daily beginning September 30: https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/29/the-news-with-shepard-smith-podcast.html?__source=youtube%7Cshepsmith%7Cpodcast Connect with CNBC News Online Get the latest news: http://www.cnbc.com/ Follow CNBC on LinkedIn: https://cnb.cx/LinkedInCNBC Follow CNBC News on Facebook: https://cnb.cx/LikeCNBC Follow CNBC News on Twitter: https://cnb.cx/FollowCNBC Follow CNBC News on Instagram: https://cnb.cx/InstagramCNBC https://www.cnbc.com/select/best-credit-cards/ #CNBC #CNBCTV |