Trump allies are selling pardons

[octoberlib]

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EXCLUSIVE: Trump allies -- like a former campaign staffer and even his former personal lawyer, John Dowd -- have sold their access to Trump, taking $$$ from wealthy felons to lobby Trump and White House aides, like Jared Kushner, for pardons. w/@kenvogel

Thread:

One of the big reasons Trump allies have been able to profit from selling access to White House for pardons is that Trump/Kushner have eschewed longstanding DOJ process to vet pardon applicants, which is designed to ensure pardons are handed out on merit, not because of $/access

Just months after John Dowd stepped down as Trump’s lead lawyer, he began marketing himself to wealthy convicts, claiming he could help them get pardons because he had an in w/ Trump/Kushner. Billy Walters, a wealthy imprisoned convict prosecuted by SDNY/FBI, hired Dowd.

Dowd told potential clients Trump would look favorably upon those convicts who were being investigated by SDNY and the FBI -- two groups who were investigating Trump and who Trump was seeking to undermine in any way possible.

Dowd had his own history with Trump and pardons. As Trump's lawyer he had dangled a pardon to former Nat Sec Advisor Mike Flynn during the Mueller investigation. Dowd had learned during his representation of Trump how Trump was trying to undermine Mueller, DOJ, FBI, etc.


Dowd took tens of thousands of dollars from the imprisoned wealthy felon Billy Walters. Although Dowd told Walters he had his pardon lined up, it still hasn't come through. Dowd still represents Walters who is hoping for pardon in final days of administration.


RUDY NEWS: A Giuliani confidant told former CIA agent Kiriakou last year that Giuliani could help him w/ pardon but it was going to cost him..$2 mil.. Kiriakou relayed this to someone at a party who thought Giuliani may be selling pardons and that person reported it to FBI in Oct

RUDY NEWS: Kiriakou told Giuliani in a meeting last summer about his pardon quest. When Giuliani went to the bathroom, a Giuliani confidant turned to Kiriakou and suggested Giuliani could help with pardon. “It’s going to cost $2 million — he’s going to want two million bucks.”


Kiriakou said he was taken aback by the price tag to hire Giuliani to help him with a pardon. “I laughed. Two million bucks — are you out of your mind? Even if I had two million bucks, I wouldn’t spend it to recover a $700,000 pension,” Kiriakou said.


The person who reported offer to FBI was TSA whistleblower/air marshal @rjmaclean. Kiriakou had told him about it at a party in Oct and he thought Giuliani may be selling pardons. Without telling Kiriakou he filed a report with the FBI. “I felt duty-bound to report it,” he said.


Giuliani, who is hoping Trump pardons him, says the account about $2 mil to help with pardons is false. Giuliani says he never would have taken money to lobby Trump to pardon someone.

“It’s like a conflict of interest,” Giuliani told us. Giuliani said he had been told of the large fees that are being offered to folks like himself to help with lobbying for pardons but said he was not interested because “I have enough money. I’m not starving.”

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

1. Gosh, who could have seen that coming?

Yet this corrupt pos gets 74 million votes and a cult willing to destroy our democracy for him.

[Maxheader]

7. Scary , isn't it ?

Looking for sanity amongst the nations conservatives is

like a snipe hunt.....

[MyOwnPeace]

15. Great analogy......

I remember as a little kid when I found out what a "myth" a snipe hunt was - just like sanity in conservatives.

[no_hypocrisy]

2. Reminds me of what motivated Martin Luther to found Protestantism.

The Pope and The Church were selling Dispensations for sins that would otherwise send Catholics to Hell.

The movement was in "protest" to this program.

[soothsayer]

4. Good old indulgences

[3Hotdogs]

11. Yeah, an indulgence.

Now there's something I would buy. Based on my life, my ass is gonna be roasting in Purgatory for a long time. When I was a kid, we use'ta pray every Sunday for the souls in Purgatory. Now, nobody gives a shit about what's gonna happen to my sorry ass.

[MyOwnPeace]

16. Hey, 3Hotdogs!

Send me a check for $xx,xxx and I'll see what I can do for ya!

[soothsayer]

19. Ha! I would be happy if they brought them back

Quite the moneymaker, I’d think. I’d be in!

[jb5150]

8. Indeed .....

they did this every time the papal coffers got low ..

[RDANGELO]

3. Of course, if you really deserve a pardon but have no money - too bad.

[Wounded Bear]

12. Kind of like medical care, if you can't afford it, you don't deserve it...

[brush]

5. They better hurry. Only 3 days left and trump still has to pack.

I wonder what the going rate is for a pardon for a big "stop the steal insurrection" participant?

Probably depends on visibility, how many times one appeared on uploaded videos hollering "hang Pence" would probably be priced the highest—a couple of million maybe?

[DAMANgoldberg]

6. I guess the name...

Rod Blagojevich came into my head as he was convicted of selling access to then-president Barack Obama. Of course, he got pardoned by Trump, so it's not surprising.

[LuvNewcastle]

17. Blagojevich wasn't just selling access.

He was selling Obama's seat in the U.S. Senate. It was up to Blagojevich to appoint someone to take Obama's place after he won the presidency. He figured that someone would pay a lot of money for the chance to be in the Senate, and he probably would have gotten a lot of money from someone if he hadn't been caught.

[Cheezoholic]

9. And people wonder why anyone would want to get involved in politics as a career

Because it's a bottomless gold mine. Will continue until we go back to regulating the flow of money into our political structure. It's off the charts right now.

[OldBaldy1701E]

10. Get the shovels

Giuliani said he had been told of the large fees that are being offered to folks like himself to help with lobbying for pardons but said he was not interested because “I have enough money. I’m not starving.”

Anytime you see or hear any of those bloodsucking MAGAts make such a statement, you know they are spreading it thick. There is no such thing as a rethug who thinks this way. Not. One.

[OhioTim]

13. Still Think He Will Pardion Rioters

Hope not

[vlyons]

14. As P.T. Barnum famously said:

"There's a sucker born every minute."

[dalton99a]

18. They should use eBay.