Trump Pardons Michael Flynn

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The pardon brings an end to a long-running legal odyssey for Flynn, who was the only member of the Trump administration to be charged as part of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.

Flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about his contacts with the Russian ambassador and then cooperated extensively with prosecutors. But he ultimately reversed course and accused the government of trying to frame him.

Flynn went so far as to withdraw his first plea of guilty and substitute a second plea of not guilty, even though he'd acknowledged the underlying conduct that was against the law and been close to receiving a sentence.
The Justice Department was not consulted about the Flynn pardon in the way it often takes part in the preparation of presidential pardons, a department official said on Wednesday. The official described the situation on the condition that the person not be identified.

The Justice Department did get a "heads-up" on Wednesday, the official said, and the person said that "this is obviously an appropriate use of the president's pardon power."

Justice Department leaders would have preferred, however, for Flynn's case to have been resolved in court, where federal Judge Emmet Sullivan still had not ruled on the government's request to abandon its prosecution.

Justice Department leaders were "confident in the likelihood of our success in the case," the official said Wednesday.
 

Agema

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Trump is by no means the first president to engage in this sort of thing. There is something fundamentally wrong with politicians being able to effectively undermine law and, with a ton of conflict of interest, pardon their minions at a whim.
 

dreng3

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Trump is by no means the first president to engage in this sort of thing. There is something fundamentally wrong with politicians being able to effectively undermine law and, with a ton of conflict of interest, pardon their minions at a whim.
The power of pardon is ultimately supposed to be a check on injustice, it provides the wielder with the ability to correct when something slips through the cracks or to adapt when the law, or public sentiment, changes, pardoning people for possession charges for an example. But in the U.S. the power of pardon has been used in some extremely questionable ways. Ultimately I do think that the power of pardon should exist, but it cannot rest solely in the hands of a single person, especially not someone so shielded from consequence as the president.

The U.S. has decided that it doesn't want a fair and just legal system, the notion of punishment instead of rehabilitation reigns supreme, and recidivism seems a goal, not an unintended consequence. As such the pardon must exist.

Of course Flynn should be locked in the darkest possible hole and the key should be thrown away.
 

ObsidianJones

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The more stupidity about the Trump administration I find out about, the more I think the writers of Veep simply have a time machine and fudged some of the details to throw us off the trail.
 

XsjadoBlayde

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Oh yeah, forgot about Flynn. I'm sure this pardon was predicted before everything went to shit. Does daredevil exist? Would be nice if he existed just for a quick moment. Gets a bit tiring seeing the rich and powerful get away with almost everything now.
 

Trunkage

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Oh yeah, forgot about Flynn. I'm sure this pardon was predicted before everything went to shit. Does daredevil exist? Would be nice if he existed just for a quick moment. Gets a bit tiring seeing the rich and powerful get away with almost everything now.
I don't know why you put 'now' in that last sentence. This is situation normal
 

Thaluikhain

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I don't know why you put 'now' in that last sentence. This is situation normal
Well the new normal, which is noticeably worse than the old normal. How much is due to it being worse and how much due to being more noticeable is something to argue about.
 

Fieldy409

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Oh yeah, forgot about Flynn. I'm sure this pardon was predicted before everything went to shit. Does daredevil exist? Would be nice if he existed just for a quick moment. Gets a bit tiring seeing the rich and powerful get away with almost everything now.
Now I'm picturing Kingpin as Trump yelling about his city and fistfighting Daredevil
 
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Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Oh yeah, forgot about Flynn. I'm sure this pardon was predicted before everything went to shit. Does daredevil exist? Would be nice if he existed just for a quick moment. Gets a bit tiring seeing the rich and powerful get away with almost everything now.
I can see Trump has granted some form of clemency to 24 people (one pardon during his presidency was by Obama, except someone fluffed the paperwork so it was processed late). 22 if we remove what we might call historical injustices: posthumous clemency to people found guilty far in the past of crimes now regarded as stupid or unjust. Almost half of these were to people who could be described as elites (high net worth, senior officials / politicians, and/or otherwise high influence), and well over half if we include nakedly political grants of clemency (to right wing activists lower down the ladder).

The overall message of this is clear: commit crime, and as long as you are well-connected you can have your sins erased.

I would favour pardons being decided by recommendations from an independent panel to minimise this bullshit. If a person's crime was relatively trivial, that should be reflected in a light sentence and not require clemency. And no-one should be able to secure pardons by large donations to political parties or writing hagiographic books about the president.
 
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Trunkage

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I can see Trump has granted some form of clemency to 24 people (one pardon during his presidency was by Obama, except someone fluffed the paperwork so it was processed late). 22 if we remove what we might call historical injustices: posthumous clemency to people found guilty far in the past of crimes now regarded as stupid or unjust. Almost half of these were to people who could be described as elites (high net worth, senior officials / politicians, and/or otherwise high influence), and well over half if we include nakedly political grants of clemency (to right wing activists lower down the ladder).

The overall message of this is clear: commit crime, and as long as you are well-connected you can have your sins erased.

I would favour pardons being decided by recommendations from an independent panel to minimise this bullshit. If a person's crime was relatively trivial, that should be reflected in a light sentence and not require clemency. And no-one should be able to secure pardons by large donations to political parties or writing hagiographic books about the president.
Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning right? Anyone else I'm forgetting?
 

Chimpzy

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Now I'm picturing Kingpin as Trump yelling about his city and fistfighting Daredevil
Hmm, what if Wilson Fisk was real and president? All things considered, probably an upgrade over what the US got.
 

Agema

You have no authority here, Jackie Weaver
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Obama pardoned Chelsea Manning right? Anyone else I'm forgetting?
Obama exercised clemency on an industrial scale unseen for decades. The vast majority were cutting the sentences of relatively ordinary people, mostly for drug offences: effectively, I think, his personal rebuke to the whole concept of the 'war on drugs'.

I'm not really convinced this was the right thing to do either, although at least it's not nakedly corrupt favouritism of one's political allies.
 

Thaluikhain

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I miss when Lex Luthor or Norman Osborne becoming president were wild ideas possible only in comic books.
Aren't they both clever and successful businesspeople with a certain amount of physical courage and commitment to their ideals?
 

Silvanus

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Trump himself said Flynn lied to the FBI, so this isn't about disputing that. He doesn't give a shit about the guy.