Adriana Camberos commits crime, Trump pardons, scoundrel commits crime again, Trump pardons again

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/16/us/politics/trump-fraudster-pardon.html

Trump Sets Fraudster Free From Prison for a Second Time
The president issued a raft of clemency grants this week, including pardoning a woman he had given relief to once before and a man whose daughter had donated millions to a Trump super PAC.



The president issued a raft of clemency grants this week, including pardoning a woman he had given relief to once before and a man whose daughter had donated millions to a Trump super PAC.




The pardons from President Trump continue a trend in which he has used the unfettered presidential clemency power to reward allies and those who have paid his associates or donated to his political operatio

Credit...Kenny Holston/The New York Times
Kenneth P. VogelSusanne Craig
By Kenneth P. Vogel and Susanne Craig
Kenneth P. Vogel and Susanne Craig have investigated President Trump’s use of clemency to reward allies.

Jan. 16, 2026
Updated 3:18 p.m. ET
In 2021, a convicted fraudster named Adriana Camberos was freed from prison when President Trump commuted her sentence.

Rather than taking advantage of that second chance, prosecutors said, Ms. Camberos returned to crime. She and her brother were convicted in 2024 in an unrelated fraud.

This week, Mr. Trump pardoned both siblings, marking the second time Mr. Trump had opened the prison gates for Ms. Camberos.

Their pardons were among a handful of clemency grants quietly issued by Mr. Trump this week.

Among the other lucky recipients: a man whose daughter had given millions to a Trump-backed super PAC, a former governor of Puerto Rico and a former F.B.I. agent — all of whom had pleaded guilty in a political corruption case.

[chowder66]

1. President Scumbag and his band of merry shit-stains strike again!

[flvegan]

2. The checks, they are a-clearing! Fucking pathetic. n/t

[Thomas Hurt]

3. Fraud is a sport for the christofascists, sign of business acumen and cleverness.

[tanyev]

4. Pardons for sale! Come and get your fresh hot pardons for sale!

[LetMyPeopleVote]

5. MaddowBlog-The controversy surrounding Trump's pardons goes from bad to worse

The White House has confronted questions for months about whether presidential pardons are effectively for sale. Those questions just got louder.

The White House has confronted questions for months about whether presidential pardons are effectively for sale.

Those questions are quite a bit louder now.

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen.com) 2026-01-19T19:21:22.799Z

https://www.ms.now/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/the-controversy-surrounding-trumps-pardons-goes-from-bad-to-worse

As the first year of Donald Trump’s second term progressed, and the list of scandalous presidential pardons grew, the White House confronted a question without modern precedent: Were pardons effectively for sale?....

Last week, these concerns reached a new level. The New York Times reported:

In late 2024, while [Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker] was facing felony bribery and other charges in the case, his daughter, Isabela Herrera, donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc., a super PAC devoted to Mr. Trump and run by his allies.

In May, her father’s lawyer, Christopher M. Kise, who had served on Mr. Trump’s legal defense team, negotiated an unusually lenient deal with the Justice Department. Under the deal, which was authorized by a top Trump appointee, Mr. Herrera agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance charge, disappointing career prosecutors who had pushed for a harsher sentence.

Two months later, Isabela Herrera donated another $1 million to MAGA Inc., culminating in a pardon from Trump late last week. (The White House claimed the political contributions did not lead to the pardon.)

The Times’ Peter Baker summarized the circumstances this way: “Her father faced bribery charges. She donated $2.5 million to a pro-Trump Super PAC. Trump’s Justice Department gave her father a lenient deal, overruling prosecutors. She gave another $1 million. Now Trump has pardoned her dad.”....

Last fall, during a briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters, “When it comes to pardons, the White House takes them with the utmost seriousness.” The president’s top spokesperson added that each pardon is subjected to “a very thorough review process,” conducted by a team of “qualified lawyers.”

I continue to believe this was one of the more unintentionally amusing things Leavitt has ever said.

As for the bigger picture, the bottom line appears increasingly unavoidable: Trump is abusing his pardon power; he apparently knows that he’s abusing his pardon power; he knows that we know he’s abusing his pardon power; and he just doesn’t seem to care.