Trump pardons Steve Bannon and others before leaving the White House

Henry Rodgers
Daily Caller
Wed, 20 Jan 2021 01:05 UTC

© Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Former WH chief strategist Steve Bannon

President Donald Trump pardoned former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon on Tuesday night after he was arrested for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors who donated to his crowdfunded border wall project.

Trump offered a list of pardons on his last night in office which included Bannon as well as famous rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, who both were prosecuted on federal weapons offenses, Reuters reported.

Bannon was arrested after he raised more than $25 million into a nonprofit group called "We Build The Wall" under the false pretense that all money raised would be spent on the construction of a border wall on the US-Mexico border, according to the Justice Department.

Bannon was facing a trial on fraud and money laundering charges in Manhattan federal court in May, according to The New York Post. In August, Bannon was arrested on a $28 million yacht named the "Lady May," which was owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui.

Comment: The pardon power, which comes from the U.S. Constitution, is one of the broadest available to a president. While pardons are typically given to people who have been prosecuted, pardons can cover conduct that has not yet resulted in legal proceedings. A pardon is not reviewable by other branches of government and the president does not have to give a reason for issuing one. But the pardon power is not absolute; it only applies to federal crimes.

Comment: Others chided President Trump for not 'draining the swamp' as he promised and bit back hard:

Many social media users, including some who were once supporters, tore into outgoing President Donald Trump during his final hours in office. Trump received backlash for failing to "Drain the Swamp" as promised, by revoking a lobbying ban and pardoning a list of US establishment figures.

"Forget about draining the swamp...President Trump just filled it up,"reacted journalist Yashar Ali - a sentiment echoed by many others, including conservative journalist Eduardo Neret, who called out Trump for performing "another total one-eighty."

"Trump went to Washington to 'drain the swamp.' Then he hired the swamp. Then his final act as President was to bow to the swamp,"tweeted conservative commenter and assistant director of The Plot Against the President, Daniel Bostic. Another user compared Trump's slogan to former President Barack Obama's own "Hope and Change" slogan, which disappointed liberals due to the lack of any meaningful change by the end of Obama's two terms in office.

New Zealand-based entrepreneur Kim Dotcom accused Trump of becoming "his own swamp paralyzed by fear and selfishness," while journalist Cassandra Fairbanks questioned, "What did we even get? No wall. DACA still exists. He hired tons of neocons and got people who would otherwise oppose them to cheerlead them. Julian is in prison. Was it even worth it?"

Those who think Trump didn't make strides on this endeavor can't see the forest for the trees. While the swamp was not drained, its network was most definitely exposed - a service to humanity on personal, national and global levels heretofore unthinkable. Given untold constraints on Trump, he did manage to poke the beast. Four years of intense and unrelenting head-on attack tells us so.