Questions have mounted over whether President
Donald Trump has sold off
pardons in exchange for donations to his
MAGA allies.
The controversy surrounding these presidential pardons has "just got louder," wrote Steve Benen, producer of “The Rachel Maddow Show” and editor of MaddowBlog, in an
analysis published Monday.
Trump has rewarded "generous donors with clemency," which was revealed in a
Wall Street Journal report in December that detailed some of the alleged inner workings that have "spawned a pardon-shopping industry where lobbyists say their going rate is $1 million. Pardon-seekers have offered some lobbyists close to the president success fees of as much as $6 million if they can close the deal, according to people familiar with the offers.”
Benen pointed to Julio Herrera Velutini, a Venezuelan-Italian banker who was facing felony bribery and other charges, and the recent donations from his daughter, Isabela Herrera, who donated $2.5 million to MAGA Inc.
In exchange for the move, "Herrera agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor campaign finance charge, disappointing career prosecutors who had pushed for a harsher sentence," according to
The New York Times.
"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)," Benen wrote.
www.bbc.co.uk
