Hunter Biden’s Pardon Pales Before The Record Of Trump, The King Of Pardons
The generally arcane and overlooked subject of presidential pardons has resurfaced with President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, on charges of failing to pay income taxes and failing to note his drug history on a federal run permit form.
It was one of just 27 pardons issued by Biden and it pales in contrast with 144 trump pardons, many given to political friends and supporters.
The presidential pardon power is enshrined in the Constitution and its roots were during the reign of the English King Ine of Wessex in the seventh century, who used a pardon as a “prerogative of mercy.”
Trump has corrupted and abused the presidential pardon power to largely apply to major financial supporters, friends and relatives.
Trump issued a total of 144 pardons during his first four years in office: 1 in 2017, 6 in 2018, 11 in 2019, 52 in 2020, and 74 in January 2021.
Jimmy Carter leads with more than 200,000 pardons for Vietnam War draft evaders. Andrew Johnson gave out more than 7,000 that included thousands of pardons he issued for ex-Confederates.
Otherwise, Franklin D. Roosevelt was at the top with 3,687 pardons. Several factors contributed to this high number including pardons related to offenses committed during the economic hardships of the Great Depression. World War II also triggered many pardons that were issued to individuals who had violated federal laws before serving in the military, as part of a broader effort to promote national unity and healing. Lastly, Roosevelt had more time to issue pardons as he served for four terms, more than any other president.
Herbert Hoover had the most grants of clemency for a one-term president with 1,385.
In order that followed, Woodrow Wilson, 2,480 pardons; and Harry S. Truman, 2,044 pardons.
James A. Garfield didn’t issue one pardon, mostly because he only served from March 1881 until his assassination six months later. William Henry Harrison also didn’t issue any pardons because he died on April 4, 1841, after just one month in office.
A pardon states that a crime has been committed and trump named many of the very people he pardoned to top government posts.
In his four years in office, pardons proved very lucrative. Trump pardoned 237 individuals charged or convicted of federal criminal offenses. Up to the closing days of the trump administration, former administration officials were soliciting fees to lobby for presidential pardons. Among those whose sentences were commuted, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and sports gambler Billy Walters paid tens of thousands of dollars to former trump attorney John M. Dowd to plead his case with trump.
Trump’s allies and associates collected tens of thousands of dollars in fees from those seeking pardons from the President, The New York Times reported.
According to the Times, former U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman collected tens of thousands of dollars to seek clemency for several people. Former trump attorney John Dowd also accepted “tens of thousands of dollars from a wealthy felon and advising him and other potential clients to leverage Mr. Trump’s grievances about the justice system,” according to the Times.
A former trump campaign top adviser was paid $50,000 to secure a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former CIA intelligence officer who was convicted of illegally disclosing classified information in 2012. Kiriakou said that an associate of trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani claimed the former mayor of New York could help with a pardon request for $2 million. Trump declined to offer a pardon for Kiriakou.
The majority of the pardons went to trump’s friends or people with strong political connections to trump. Many had been convicted of fraud or public corruption.
Trump has issued pardons to politically powerful people like Paul Manafort, his 2016 campaign chairman, and Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime ally and informal adviser. He also pardoned his former security advisor, retired Gen. Michael Flynn and a top advisor, Stephen K. Bannon.
Flynn, Stone and Manafort were each involved in investigations that could have implicated trump. The three also were involved in the bogus effort to nullify the 2020 presidential election and have trump named president. After the inauguration, trump also has promised to pardon those who have been prosecuted for involvement in the January 6th Capitol riot.
But other questionable pardons did not receive similar public attention.
Conrad Black
A case in point was Conrad Moffat Black, a longtime friend and trump supporter and former media tycoon.
Black controlled Hollinger International, once the world’s third-largest English-language newspaper empire, which published The Daily Telegraph (UK), Chicago Sun-Times (US), The Jerusalem Post (Israel), National Post (Canada), and hundreds of community newspapers in North America, before controversy erupted over the sale of some of the company’s assets.
In 2007, Black was convicted in federal court on four counts of fraud. Two of the criminal fraud charges were overturned on appeal, but the court upheld a conviction for felony fraud and obstruction of justice. Blackwas was re-sentenced to 42 months in prison and a fine of $125,000. Black was released from prison in 2014 and was deported to his home country of Canada.
In 2019, trump granted Black a federal pardon and noted that Black had “broad support from many high-profile individuals who have vigorously vouched for his exceptional character.”
Court records showed that Black owned a mansion in Palm Beach, Fla., that was listed for sale in 2004 at $36 million. In late April 2011, Black sold the Florida property for about $30 million. Trump’s Mar-a-Lago mansion also is located in Palm Beach.
Black has written favorable articles about trump and his 2018 book “Donald J. Trump: A President Like No Other.”
Russian Crime Links
Another pardon was granted on trump’s last day in office to the art dealer and collector, Hillel “Helly” Nahmad. Nahmad pleaded guilty in 2014 to organizing an illegal $100 million gambling ring with suspected links to Russian organized crime. The ring operated out of the 51st floor of Trump Tower, which Hahmad bought for $21 million. Investigators said the arrests involved “a sophisticated Russian organized crime money-laundering network that operated out of unit 63A in Trump Tower in New York.”
In addition to the prison sentence, Nahmad was ordered to forfeit $6.4 million in earnings. Nahmad was sentenced to one year and one day’s imprisonment; three years’ supervised release, conditioned upon 300 hours’ community service; and a $30,000 fine.
Nahmad is a member of the wealthy Nahmad family and son of the noted art collector David Nahmad. His Manhattan gallery holds fine art exhibitions featuring artists such as Pablo Picasso, Chaïm Soutine, Francis Bacon and Giorgio de Chirico. In 2018, Nahmad bought Picasso’s Young Girl with a Flower Basket painting for $115 million.
The FBI investigation led to a federal grand jury indictment of more than 30 people, including Vadim Trincher, Molly Bloom, Helly Nahmad, and Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov, who is considered one of Russia’s most notorious crime bosses. He escaped arrest and remains a fugitive. For his support of the illicit operation, Tokhtakhunov allegedly received more than $12 million by the Taiwanchik-Trincher Organization from December 2011 to February 2013. The U.S. State Department is offering a $4 million reward for Tokhtakhunov’s arrest.
Bloom, known as the “Poker Princess,” gained notoriety in the 2000s for running high stakes poker games that catered to many Hollywood stars. She plead guilty to federal charges.
Tokhtakhounov also was indicted in 2002 when he was accused of paying bribes to judges at the Salt Lake City Olympics so that Russian figure skaters would win gold medals. At the time, he was in Italy and was able to fight extradition to the U.S.
Tokhtakhounov was among a group of wealthy and powerful Russians who were VIP guests of trump at the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which was co-owned by trump and NBC. The pageant was held several months after federal agents busted up the multi-million dollar gambling ring at a swanky apartment at Trump Tower.
Also present at the pageant were Vladimir Kozhin, a top government who was later hit with U.S. sanctions in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Aras Agalarov, a Russian billionaire oligarch close to Putin. Trump had hoped to join with Agalarov to build a high-rise in Moscow.
Moss
Glenn Moss, a Connecticut man who was a golfing buddy of trump , pleaded guilty in a 1998 health care fraud case and was granted a full pardon during the final hours of the trump administration.
Moss, a member of the trump’s golf club in Westchester County, N.Y., was listed as donating $10,000 to the Trump Foundation in 2008.
In a statement, trump said that Moss has become a “vital member of his community” and has been “committed to numerous philanthropic efforts at the national level.”
Moss pleaded guilty to a tax charge after he acknowledged conspiring to pay kickbacks to obtain referrals for his employer, Analytical Diagnostics Lab of Brooklyn, N.Y. He admitted that he earned close to $500,000 in 1992, but claimed a taxable income of just over $2,000.
After the pardon, trump wrote to Moss, with consolations on the death of his wife, Kimberly.
“I hope the special memories you have of Kim will provide you with comfort and peace,” trump wrote in the letter dated April 9. “On behalf of my entire family, especially Eric, we will continue to pray for you and my deepest condolences for your loss.”
Kurson
Kenneth Kurson was editor-in-chief of The New York Observer between 2013 and 2017. He was named editor by the newspaper’s publisher, Jared Kushner, who is married to trump’s daughter and is the son of pardoned developer Kushner.
In 2020 Kurson was charged with cyberstalking and harassment, for which he was pardoned by trump in 2021. In February 2022, Kurson pleaded guilty to state misdemeanor criminal charges of attempted eavesdropping and computer trespass related to his divorce.
From 2002 through the end of 2006, Kurson was Deputy Director of Communications for Giuliani Partners, the consulting company founded by Rudy Giuliani. Kurson was chief operating officer during Giuliani’s unsuccessful 2008 campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.
In May 2018, Kurson was under consideration for an unpaid position in the trump administration on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities. An FBI background check disclosed allegations that Kurson had harassed a female doctor. Kurson later withdrew from consideration for the trump post.
In October 2020, federal prosecutors unsealed a criminal complaint charging Kurson with interstate cyberstalking and harassment of the doctor. Trump pardoned Kurson on his last full day of the presidency. The White House said in a statement that Kurson’s ex-wife wrote a “powerful letter to the prosecutors” on his behalf, saying that “she never wanted this investigation or arrest,” that the investigation only took place because of the vetting process, and that “Kurson is an upstanding citizen and father to five beautiful children.”
In August 2021, Kurson was charged in a New York state court with hacking into his wife’s as their marriage fell apart and they divorced. State charges are immune from presidential pardons.
After announcing the charges, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said, “We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York.”
In February 2022, Kurson struck a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to two misdemeanors with the opportunity to have the charges further reduced.
Kushner
Trump pardoned real estate tycoon Charles Kushner after he pleaded guilty to 18 federal charges in 2004 and in 2020. The Kushner pardon was part of a wave of 26 pardons, many to close associates, that trump issued about a month before he left office.
Kushner son is Jared Kushner who is married to the president’s daughter, Ivanka. Jared served as a senior advisor to trump during his first term in the White House.
Kushner served 16 months of a two-year sentence for falsifying tax returns, making illegal campaign contributions, retaliating against a cooperating witness and making false statements to the Federal Election Commission. He was sentenced in March of 2005, released in 2006 and was pardoned in 2020 by trump.
The 2004 indictment focused on hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign donations that Kushner made in New Jersey. He admitted to violating election laws, tax evasion and witness tampering and served two years in federal prison. The jury heard evidence from two key witnesses: Kushner’s sister and her husband.
After pleading guilty, Kushner acknowledged that after he found out some members of his family were cooperating with authorities, he arranged to have a prostitute seduce his brother-in-law in a motel room in New Jersey where video cameras were installed. The plot succeeded and Kushner later had a videotape sent to his sister.
He was prosecuted by former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, who was then U.S. Attorney for New Jersey. Christie was once a close confidant of trump and ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 GOP nomination for president. Christie said that Kushner had committed, “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted.
In pardoning Kushner trump said that his “record of reform and charity overshadows Mr. Kushner’s conviction and two-year sentence for preparing false tax returns, witness retaliation, and making false statements to the FEC.”
Trump announced last week that he will nominate Kushner as the U.S. Ambassador to France, to live in 60,000-square-foot splendor in Paris and swan around the Champs-Élysées.
Ambassadors are the face of U.S. foreign policy as the nation’s diplomatic representative. Their appointments must be confirmed by the Senate. Ambassadorships are often used as a form of political patronage to reward high-profile or important supporters of the president.
Kushner, the founder of Kushner Companies, a real estate development firm, has hosted political fundraisers at his home that trump has attended.
Kushner, 70, and his father Joseph Kushner formed Kushner Companies in 1985 while acquiring properties in New York, Pennsylvania and Florida. By the early 2000s, Kushner Companies had become one of New Jersey’s largest apartment owners and the firm had a portfolio spanning 25,000 units.
The French ambassador during trump’s first years of rule was Jamie D. McCourt, who was a co-chair of the GOP National Committee’s California committee. The day that trump won the Republican Party presidential nomination, McCourt sent $94,600 to the Republican National Committee. In September 2016, she donated $4,761 to each of 21 state Republican parties. In October, she added $5,238 to each of the 21 state parties and threw in another $139,200 directly to the Republican National Committee. She also donated $200,000 to the Trump Victory Fund.
Jamie McCourt was formerly married to billionaire Frank McCourt, the CEO of McCourt Global and once-owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also is organizing a bid to purchase TikTok.
The French ambassador under President Joe Biden is Denise Bauer, who was the ambassador to Belgium under President Barack Obama. Bauer was the executive director of Women for Biden and has personally contributed nearly $20,000 to Democratic candidates and organizations.
Navarro
Trump also has tapped Peter Navarro to be senior counselor on trade and manufacturing. Navarro is a former aide and loyal ally who was convicted of contempt of congress and then pardoned. Navarro will help trump implement his broad tariff plan.
Navarro was the White House trade adviser in Trump’s first term. He refused to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by trump supporters on the Capitol. Navarro served a four-month sentence after he was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress, one for failing to produce documents related to the Jan. 6 probe and another for not showing for his deposition before the now-defunct House committee that was investigating the riot at the Capitol.
The Office of Special Counsel also ruled in December 2020 that Navarro repeatedly violated the Hatch Act by using his official capacity to influence elections in speaking against Biden during the presidential campaign.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Navarro and trump strongly promoted the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID, even though the drug’s effectiveness was unproven.
In 2021, Navarro wrote a book about how he and other trump advisers constructed a plan called the “Green Bay Sweep” as the “last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit.” In the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack, Navarro promoted a document he called the “Navarro Report” that asserted baseless and discredited claims of election fraud.
Hours after his release from prison, Navarro was met with a rousing applause by Republicans as Navarro endorsed trump for a second term at the 2024 Republican National Convention in Milwaukee.
“I am pleased to announce that Peter Navarro, a man who was treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it, will serve as my Senior Counselor for Trade and Manufacturing,” Trump posted on Truth Social in announcing Navarro’s new role.
Bannon
Like Navarro, Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser, also was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year for refusing to testify before Congress on the Jan. 6 attacks.
Trump also pardoned Bannon from all federal charges that he and three others committed mail fraud and money laundering in connection with the We Build the Wall fundraising campaign.
According to the grand jury indictment, Bannon and the defendants promised that all contributions would go to building a U.S.–Mexico border wall, but instead enriched themselves. Bannon pleaded not guilty and trump pardoned Bannon not Bannon’s codefendants. Federal pardons do not cover state offenses, and in September 2022, Bannon was charged in New York state court with fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy in connection with the border wall campaign.
In the final hours of trump’s administration, Bannon was issued a presidential pardon because he was “an important leader in the conservative movement and is known for his political acumen.”
Bannon resigned from the White House on August 18, 2017, less than a week after the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, led by whit supremacists, which degenerated into violence and acrimony. Trump blamed “many sides” for the violence and Bannon was reported to have come up with the phrase for trump.
Chronister
Chad Chronister, the sheriff in Hillsborough County, Fla., was trump’s pick to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration. Three days later Chronister declined the appointment. Chronister withdrew his name from consideration after right wing complaints that as a sheriff, he had arrested a prominent pastor who defied COVID-19 restrictions by holding a large service.
Chad Chronister may not be well known outside of Florida but his father-in-law, Edward Dibartolo Jr., is honored in the world of professional football and was pardoned in 2020 by trump on federal charges.
For two decades, DeBartolo Jr. owned the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). In 2016, DeBartolo was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame as a contributor.
DeBartolo pleaded guilty in 1998 to concealing an extortion attempt after he paid $400,000 to the former governor of Louisiana, Edwin Edwards. In exchange, Edwards was to help DeBartolo in obtaining a license from the gaming to operate a riverboat casino in which DeBartolo was an investor.
DeBartolo was fined $1 million and given two years of probation in return for his testimony against Edwards. DeBartolo was fined by the NFL and barred from active control of the 49ers for a year. On February 18, 2020, trump granted DeBartolo a presidential pardon.
Chronister is the second announced trump appointee to leave the race. Rep. Matt Goetz, R-Fla., withdrew from consideration as U.S. Attorney General under a cloud of sexual improprieties minors.
Costa
Another late pardon went to Alfonso Costa, a close friend of Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development under trump and an unsuccessful presidential candidate. Costa and former dental partner Roberto Michienzi plead guilty to fraudulently billing insurance companies for about $44,000 in dental work that was never done.
Costa served two years of probation and paid nearly $300,000 in fines and restitution, as his sentence was reduced because he served more than 400 hours of community service with the Carson Scholars Fund. The White House said Carson and Pittsburgh Steelers legend Jerome Bettis had requested clemency for Costa and said Costa devoted much of his adult life to serving his community.
DeSouza
One pardon was granted to conservative commentator and conspiracist Dinesh D’Souza. D’Souza pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to the 2012 Senate campaign of his Republican friend, Wendy Long. D’Souza was sentenced to five years of probation, eight months in a halfway house and a $30,000 fine.
Trump wiped the slate clean and D’Souza was freed to continue his political work for trump the MAGA movement. His efforts included a series of conspiracy political films that alleged voter fraud in the 2020 election. His film, “2000 Mules” alleges that Democrat-aligned individuals were paid to illegally collect and deposit ballots into drop boxes in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin during the 2020 presidential election.
The film premiered in Mar-a-Lago in 2022 and was quickly hailed by the MAGA world and particularly trump, who said that D’souza had exposed the “great election fraud.”
This past week, facing a lawsuit from a man filmed allegedly committing election fraud, D’souza admitted that some of the film’s claims are flawed.
Urlacher
Another trump pardon went to Casey Urlacher, the younger brother of Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Brian Urlacher. Brian Urlacher has been a major trump supporter and last year, expressed support for trump after the former president was named in a multi-count indictment.
“Doesn’t matter how many fake charges they find him guilty of he’s still got my vote,” Urlacher posted.
The eight-time Pro Bowler and four-time All-Pro First-teamer shared a photo of himself with Trump on a golf course.
Uhrlacher’s brother, Casey, played football in the Arena Football League and was elected the mayor of Mettawa, Ill., In 2013. Casey Urlacher was among 10 people charged in a federal indictment alleging they ran an offshore sports gambling ring that raked in millions of dollars from hundreds of Chicago-area gamblers. The ring was led by Vincent “Uncle Mick” DelGuidice, a reputed associate of the Chicago Outfit who owned a gambling website registered in Costa Rica. Before the trial began, trump pardoned Casey Urlacher on his last day in office.
Trump also gave a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the former African American heavyweight boxing champ. Johnson was found guilty in 1920 of violating the Mann Act by traveling with his white girlfriend across state lines for immoral purposes. He was sentenced to one year in prison and fined $1,000.
Trump also pardoned Susan B. Anthony, w ho was convicted in 1873 of violating the Enforcement Act of 1870 by illegally casting a ballot in the 1872 presidential election.
Stanton-King
Another pardon went to Angela Stanton-King, who spent two years in prison for conspiracy regarding a stolen car ring. She was pardoned by trump a decade after serving two years in prison.
A supporter of the QAnon conspiracy, Stanton-King ran in 2020 against a staunch trump opponent, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga. Stanton-King won the GOP primary but Lewis died of cancer on July 17 and was replaced on the ballot by Nikema Williams, chair of the Georgia Democratic Party. Williams scored a landslide victory over Stanton-King.
Stanton-King joined a coalition of Black supporters of trump and campaigned for independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in until he dropped out of the 2024 presidential race.
Trump was criticized for political motives when he pardoned Jon Donyae Ponder, an African American who was convicted three times for bank robbery. Ponder later founded the Hope for Prisoners program in Nevada which helps former prisoners to reintegrate into society.
Trump granted Ponder a pardon during the 2020 Republican National Convention. Ponder, who spoke at the convention, had been serving a 5-year-prison sentence when he was pardoned.
Pirro
Another pardon in the 11th hour of trump’s presidency went to Albert J. Pirro Jr., a Westchester, N.Y., power broker and the former husband of conservative, trump cheerleader, Fox News commentator Jeanine Pirro.
Albert Pirro, who had been a major Republican lobbyist and one of Westchester’s top real estate lawyers, represented trump on the issue of casino gambling when trump’s Atlantic City casinos had yet to go bankrupt.
Albert Pirro was convicted in 2000 on conspiracy and tax evasion charges and was sentenced to 29 months in federal prison, but served just 11 months before his release.
Trump and the Pirros were social friends and trump often was a guest at the Pirros’ lavish parties at their Harrison, N.Y., home. Jeanine Pirro held a 1996 masquerade ball at trump’s Seven Springs, N.Y., mansion, with Jeanine dressed as Queen Isabella of Spain, with Al garbed as her grand duke.
“This man is committed to each and every one of you,” Jeanine Pirro said. “He will go the distance for you. He is fighting for you and the military. And now it’s time for you to fight back for him because if that other bozo gets in, say goodbye to the America we know.”
Pirro’s conviction centered on his history of deducting $1.2 million of his personal expenses as if they were incurred by his business. The write-offs included a Ferrari that cost $123,000 and the veterinarian bills for the family’s pot-bellied pigs. Also convicted in the tax scheme was Pirro’s brother, Anthony, an accountant, who did his brother’s tax filings.
Anthony Pirro did not receive a last-minute Trump pardon.
During the 1990s, Albert Pirro had close ties to the Westchester County Republican Committee, and Westchester County Executive Andrew O’Rourke. He was also a major campaign contributor.
Pirro, who won back his license to practice law in 2007, headed the legal team for trump’s unsuccessful bid in the 1990s to develop Davids Island off the coast of New Rochelle. The plan was roundly opposed and trump lost his $500,000 deposit to the city of New Rochelle despite Pirro’s threat to sue over the deposit.
Pirro also was trump’s attorney for his failed attempt to develop the Seven Springs estate in New Castle, Bedford and North Castle into an exclusive 18-hole golf course surrounded by high income homes. The value of the estate figured into a Manhattan judge’s ruling last February ordering trump to pay $454 million judgement for inflating property values.