- President Donald Trump plans to forgive or commute the sentences of 100 people on his last day at the White House, CNN reported.
- The list was drawn up during a Sunday meeting between Trump, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and other advisers, and is likely to be made public on Monday or Tuesday, The Washington Post reported.
- Some allies believe that Trump hopes to benefit from many of these pardons and commutations after the presidency, CNN reported, citing a source: “He likes to do favors to people he thinks owes him.”
- The list of pardons and commutations may include Dr. Salomon Melgen, an ophthalmologist convicted of healthcare fraud, and rapper Lil Wayne.
- The list is not expected to include himself, CNN said, although the president is considering forgiving himself and his family.
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President Donald Trump plans to forgive or commute up to 100 people on his last full day in office, CNN reported.
A list of names was drawn up by Trump on Sunday during a meeting with Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and several other advisers, The Washington Post reported.
Decisions are expected to be announced Monday or Tuesday, the Post reported.
While the identities of the 100 are not known, some of the president’s allies believe that many of the pardons or commutations will go to people he hopes to benefit from in the future, CNN said.
“Everything is a transaction. He likes forgiveness because it is one-sided. And he likes to do favors for the people he thinks he owes him,” a source told CNN.
Trump is expected to leave the White House on the morning of January 20 – President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration day – and move permanently to his resort in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
After that, Trump is considering reviving his TV career, building a $ 2 billion presidential library, launching a TV or social media network, or running for president again in 2024.
Vice President Mike Pence behind Trump in the Oval Office in September 2020.
Anna Moneymaker-Pool / Getty Images
And in the final months of his presidency, Trump was inundated with apologies, including “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic and “Q-Anon Shaman” Jacob Anthony Chansley.
However, forgiveness may not be cheap.
On Sunday, The New York Times reported that an assistant to Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, told a former CIA officer that a pardon “would cost $ 2 million”. Giuliani told The Times that he does not remember the meeting.
Trump discussed Giuliani’s forgiveness with advisers, The Times reported in early December.
Read More: Biden’s tenure is raising tens of millions of dollars, but it does not say how he is spending the money
Although the identities of the 100 people are still unknown, CNN reported that Dr. Salomon Melgen, an ophthalmologist from Florida who is currently in prison after being found guilty of health fraud, must be one of those who will receive clemency.
Bloomberg reported last week that rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, who currently face jail time for crimes, were also being considered for forgiveness.
White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, senior adviser Stephen Miller, personal director John McEntee and social media director Dan Scavino are also being considered, the media said.
For weeks, there were rumors that Trump was considering a forgiveness for himself and his immediate family, but a source told Reuters that the president was not planning to do so on Sunday.
Neither Trump, his family members nor his top advisers have been charged with a crime, but it is possible for a president to issue preventive pardons.
Roger Stone, whom Trump forgave last month in Fort Lauderdale in July 2020.
Getty Images / Johnny Lewis
According to CNN and Reuters, advisers have been trying to dissuade the president from granting himself a preventive pardon for weeks, saying it would make him look guilty.
Trump has issued a series of pardons and commutations since he lost the 2020 presidential election.
On December 22, Trump pardoned 20 people, including two Trump campaign associates who were caught in the FBI investigation in Russia, two Border Patrol agents accused of shooting an unarmed immigrant and four former Blackwater guards who were convicted of killing Iraqi civilians.
The next day, he forgave former GOP strategist Roger Stone, his former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Jared Kushner’s father, Charles, and a former K-9 policeman who shot his police dog at an unarmed homeless man in 1995
Last week, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump for his role in inciting a group of his supporters who invaded the U.S. Capitol in an attack that killed five people.
Trump now faces a Senate trial, whose members can vote to prevent him from taking a federal seat again.