Trump’s Last-Minute Pardons

On his last day before departure from office, Trump issued pardons and sentence commutations for 143 people. Among those were several big names like Steve Bannon or Lil Wayne. There was also a significant number of non-violent drug offenders freed. Trump did not pardon any member of his own family or himself. Neither did he include any of the famous whistleblowers or other personalities he’s been urged to pardon by the public in the last months.

Trump’s most recent pardon announcements add to the list of 70 others who have been pardoned over the course of his 4-year presidency. His previous pardons involved offences ranging from drug possession and distribution, though ‘obstruction of justice’ or falsifying tax returns, to murder. Sometimes, the perpetrators have been his allies or associates.

Across the 143 people pardoned now, the range of convictions is slightly narrower. Over 50 of the clemencies issued involved non-violent drug-related crimes, including over a dozen life sentences. Many of the drug convictions are a result of mandatory sentencing laws dating back to the 1980s and often involve decades-long sentences for relatively minor infractions.

Many of the pardons granted involved old convictions of people who have already been released from prison. Some even date several decades back. In such cases, pardons serve the function of clearing the name of said person - by removing the ‘stain’ on one’s credibility which a criminal record presents, those released are able to avoid numerous further complications in their civil life.

The recent announcement only includes a handful of politically-related figures. The most prominent of those is Trump’s long-time ally and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. In relation to his involvement in a ‘political project’, he was charged with fraud and has been pardoned pre-emptively, before any court proceedings could take place. Another well-known name is Paul Erickson, who was convicted of a ‘minor financial crime’ under the broader investigation into Trump’s alleged ties with the Russian government. The official White House statement announcing Erickson’s pardon says: ‘This pardon helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.’

Among other prominent public personalities pardoned is the rapper Lil Wayne, who pled guilty to a gun-related charge. He could have faced up to 10 years in prison. The sentence of another rapper, Kodak Black, was commuted by Trump, following his conviction for making a false statement on a federal document.

The pardon list also includes Anthony Levandowski, a self-driving car engineer and a former employee of Google, who was convicted for stealing trade secrets from Waymo, a Google-affiliated company he had worked for. 

An interesting addition to the pardon list is also Rober Bowker, who pled guilty to a violation of a wildlife-related law. He had illegally transported 22 snakes to a serpentarium, for which he was offered 22 alligators in return.

Notably absent from Trump’s last-minute pardons are famous whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden. In the past months, many prominent public personalities have called for the two ‘enemies of state’ to be pardoned. Snowden has been living in exile in Russia, where is not held captive. Assange’s case has intensified lately amid extradition hearings, in which the extradition request submitted by the US prosecution was denied, subject to appeal. He has been held in a UK maximum-security Belmarsh prison since 2019 after his asylum status at the Ecuadorian embassy in London was not extended following his seven-years-long ‘house arrest’ there.

No pardon was issued in the case of Ross Ulbricht, either, who has become famous for receiving an incredibly punitive sentence of double life plus 40 years for a non-violent crime of creating and operating the darknet market website Silk Road.