Crime and Pardon by Donald Trump

Photo from WS Local Six

 Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote Crime and Punishment in 1866.

154 years later, Donald Trump, with his gross misuse of his Presidential powers, is writing the perverse sequel Crime and Pardon.

Throughout his Presidency, Donald Trump has seen his office as a way to issue get out of jail free cards to people who:

• Support him and his views.
• Are represented by supporters, patrons, or sympathetic news organizations (Fox.)

Among the notable questionable pardons and commutations issued before this week were those issued to:

• Former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
• Former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.
• Trump political consigliere Roger Stone.
• Dick Cheney ally Scooter Libby.
• Conservative filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza
• Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
• Navy Seal Edward Gallagher.

Over the last two days, the "Law and Order" President, with less than a month to go in his tweet filled tyranny,  has set new lows in his misuse of the pardon powers granted him by the Consitution.

These undeserved pardons and commutations were given to:

• Three corrupt ex Congressmen who supported Donald Trump (Christopher Collins, Duncan Hunter, and Steven Stockman.)
• Duncan Hunter's wife.
• Charles Kushner, the father of Mr. Trump's son in law.
• Four individuals who obstructed the Mueller Investigation or lied to Congress (Paul Manafort, Roger Stone, George Papadopoulos, and Alex Van Der Zwaan.)
• Blackwater Employees who killed 17 innocent Iraqis in 2007 (Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard.) These "men" worked for Trumpist Eric Prince. He is the brother of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

So in Donald Trump's mindset, you can commit any crime ranging from campaign finance violations to obstructing Congress and federal investigations to mass murder as long as you pay homage (and donations)  to the Chief Executive Demagogue, Donald Trump.

Or as Paul Waldman headlined in a recent column:

"Trump’s new pardons send a message: Corruption is fine if you’re a Republican"

This is probably not how the Founders envisioned the President using the Pardon powers granted to the Executive Branch in the Constitution.

So far, only one Republican in the United States Senate, frequent Trump critic Ben Sasse, has criticized Trump on his pardons, stating:

“This is rotten to the core.”

Where are the other Republicans in the House and the Senate?

Do they not realize their enabling and humoring of the 2016 and 2020 Popular Vote Loser over the last five years, including the impeachment process, only made matters worse for the American People and the country?

Who is he going to be pardoned next? Steve Bannon? Family Members? Himself?

In this holiday season when people are suffering and dying in large part because of Donald Trump's mishandling of the COVID 19 pandemic, the people that deserve the least reason to cheer the day before Christmas are the criminals whose sole redeeming quality, according to Individual One, is they support him.

Thankfully, the rest of the country will have reason to celebrate when Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take over the helm of the ship of state on January 20, 2021.