Donald Trump’s sweeping use of his pardon power has led to more than $1.3 billion in lost restitution and payments to taxpayers and crime victims, according to Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee.
That finding came in a report looking at the effect of Trump’s pardons of thousands of Jan. 6 rioters and of white collar criminals.
“At the time President Trump pardoned the January 6th insurrectionists, only 15% of the $3 million in restitution ordered to victims had been paid, with the remaining $2.6 million due suddenly liquidated by the President’s pardons,” the report stated, citing reporting from CBS News.
“Of course it’s not just violent, cop-beating extremists in President Trump’s private mob-and-militia who have been pardoned,” it went on.
“With a far greater financial effect, President Trump’s pardon spree has also swept in big-time corporate fraudsters, millionaire tax evaders, and other white-collar criminals. Thanks to President Trump’s pardons, these convicted criminals now get to keep $1.3 billion in ill-gotten gains they stole from their victims and American taxpayers.”
The report cites Trump’s pardon of reality television hosts Todd and Julie Chisley for tax evasion and bank fraud—crimes for which they were ordered to pay $17.7 million in restitution.
Also mentioned was Trump’s commutation of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson’s fraud sentence. Watson’s bill was $36.7 million.
Another instance of lost restitution, according to the report, occurred when Trump applied his clemency power to Lawrence Duran, who had pleaded guilty to defrauding Medicare recipients out of $205 million. This imperiled up to $87 million in payments, Democrats on the House committee said.
Traditionally, presidents would grant clemency to those who had paid their debts, the report states, adding that the president is able to offer conditional pardons requiring that all remaining payments be made.
The White House dismissed the committee’s report.
“The summer interns working for House Democrats must be busy writing and printing pointless letters that aren’t worth the paper they’re written on,” spokesperson Harrison Fields told the Daily Beast in a statement, before accusing Democrats of having a double standard.
“The Democrats were conveniently silent when ‘Pay Your Fair Share’ Biden pardoned his tax-cheating son, and they have no standing to cry foul now,” Fields said. “President Trump is righting the wrongs of political prosecutions and providing justice after careful consideration of thoroughly vetted cases presented to him.”
The White House has also argued that Trump’s pardons have saved taxpayer money since incarceration no longer applies.
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