Donald Trump grants 73 pardons and commutes 70 sentences in final hours of presidency

Donald Trump and Steve Bannon 

Credit: AFP

US President Donald Trump granted clemency to former White House aide Steve Bannon as part of a wave of pardons and commutations issued in his final hours in office, a senior administration official said, but did not pardon himself, members of his family or lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Mr Trump leaves office on Wednesday, when Joe Biden is sworn in as the nation’s next president. White House officials had argued to Mr Trump that he should not pardon himself or his family because it might look like they are guilty of crimes, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Mr Trump granted pardons to 73 individuals and commuted the sentences of an additional 70 individuals. The list includes Elliott Broidy, a former top fundraiser for Mr Trump who pleaded guilty last year to violating foreign lobbying laws, and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was serving a 28-year prison term on corruption charges, a senior administration official said. Rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black who were prosecuted on federal weapons offenses, were also granted pardons.

Mr Bannon, who was a key adviser in Trump’s 2016 presidential run, was charged last year with swindling Trump supporters over an effort to raise private funds to build the president’s wall on the US-Mexico border. He has pleaded not guilty.

Mr Giuliani, who has been at the forefront of unsuccessful efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has not been charged with a crime, but investigators have been probing his activities in Ukraine.

Mr Trump previously pardoned former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI about his conversation with the former Russian ambassador, and he commuted the prison term for Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress during its investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Mr Bannon can still be charged in state court in New York, where a pardon would not help him, said Daniel R. Alonso, a former prosecutor now at the Buckley law firm. Fraud prosecutions are frequently brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Alonso said.

Lil Wayne, 38, whose real name is Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., pleaded guilty in federal court in December to illegally possessing a firearm and faced up to 10 years in prison. He has expressed support for Trump’s criminal justice reform efforts.

Kodak Black, 23, who was born Bill Kahan Kapri, is in federal prison for making a false statement in order to buy a firearm. 

Other notable people Mr Trump granted full pardons to were Sholam Weiss, who was convicted of bilking $125 million from the National Heritage Life Insurance Co and its elderly policyholders, and  Anthony Levandowski , a former Google engineer who pleaded guilty to stealing secret technology related to self-driving cars from the company before becoming the head of Uber Technologies Inc’s rival unit.