The week
The Blackwater guards that Trump forgave were arrested for a massacre of civilians, including 2 children
The 15 people that President Trump forgave on Tuesday night include the first two congressmen who endorsed him for president – the former Reps. Chris Collins (RN.Y.) and Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), Both convicted of financial crimes – two people arrested in Special Investigation Robert Mueller in Russia and four private guards working for Blackwater who were serving long sentences for an unprovoked and unnecessary massacre of civilians in 2007 in Nisour Square in Baghdad that left 17 Iraqis dead, including two boys aged 8 and 11. sold and renamed Academi, he is a private military contractor headed by Erik Prince, brother of Trump’s education secretary, Betsy DeVos. The massacre at Nisour Square marked a low point in US-Iraq relations after the US invasion in 2003, and federal prosecutors have spent years bringing the four Blackwater guards – Nicholas Slatten, Paul Slough, Evan Liberty and Dustin Heard – to justice. After a federal judge in 2009, he rejected the first manslaughter and manslaughter convictions by Blackwater contractors, determining that the evidence was contaminated, then Vice President Joe Biden said at a press conference in Baghdad that the men were not acquitted and the US would appeal the decision. “In the following years, as the case continued, the contractors became known in the conservative media as ‘Biden Four’,” reports The Washington Post. Slatten ended up being sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder, while the other three were convicted of manslaughter and received sentences of 12 to 15 years. “Campaigns asking the four to receive presidential pardons started in earnest last year, most arguing that the men were still veterans in quasi-military tasks,” reports the Post, noting that Trump has already pardoned two convicted Army officers or awaiting trial on murder charges for shooting Afghan civilians. In a 2009 Fox News column, Duncan Hunter – still in Congress – called “the Four Biden” brave “political pawns” who were “sent to prison for doing their job”. More stories from theweek.com What would really happen if Trump tried the idea of ’martial law’? Republican House leader McCarthy reportedly rejects Pelosi’s attempt to approve $ 2,000 payments by unanimous consent. Trump arrives too late for his presidency