Outgoing US President Donald Trump has pardoned 73 people. This was reported by the press service of the White House.
The list of pardons includes former Trump adviser Stephen Bannon. He is accused of fraud and stealing of funds.
In addition, the American businessman Elliott Brody, who actively supported Trump, was pardoned. He was charged with involvement in illegal lobbying activities.
Also on the list is GOP political consultant Paul Erickson. Some American media claimed that he had previously been in a romantic relationship with Russian woman Maria Butina.
Trump also pardoned former Google engineer Anthony Lewandowski, who was previously sentenced to prison for stealing commercial information about self-driving cars from the company and then transferring it to competitors.
The list includes rap singers Lil Wayne (Duane Michael Carter) and Kodak Black (Bill Capri). A pardon was applied to the first, and the punishment was commuted to the second. They were prosecuted on gun-related charges.
For another 70 people, the president decided to mitigate the punishment.
Donald Trump did not include himself, as well as members of his family, in the list. Journalists admitted that Trump could take such a preventive step, but later it became known that lawyers dissuaded him from doing so. Otherwise, he allegedly put himself in a dangerous position in light of possible impeachment. According to the White House legal consultant Pat Cipollone, this could be interpreted as an indirect admission of guilt.
Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange are missing from the list of pardons.
On Wednesday, January 20, at 12:00 Washington time (20:00 Moscow time), the inauguration of the Democrat Joseph Biden, who was declared the winner of the presidential elections in the United States, will take place. In anticipation of the ceremony, heightened security measures have been taken in the capital of the United States. Much of the city center, adjacent to the White House and the Congress, is closed to traffic. Capitol Hill is cordoned off, the general public is not allowed there.
A pardon is one of the duties of the president, which he must fulfill before the expiration of his powers. Trump began granting pardons even before the Christmas holidays. However, the process was put on hold shortly before January 6, when riots broke out in the Capitol during the approval of the election results.
Presidential pardons in the United States are non-appealable. Many presidents have used this power to remove prosecutions from convicts, including their political supporters.
