All Trump’s repeat offenders – emptywheel

Donald Trump and Stephen “Discount Goebbels” Miller have a plan. As the election approaches, they want to find every instance of an undocumented immigrant committing a violent crime; that has been and continues to be their routine response whenever Trump’s misogyny or his own crimes are reported in the media.

Berman continued to question Leavitt about whether the posts were demeaning to women. She then listed the names of girls and women murdered by illegal immigrants, in an effort to show the real-world harm caused by the Biden administration’s open-border policies.

“I think it’s demeaning to women that Kamala Harris and Joe Biden are allowing an invasion of illegal criminals into our country, many of whom have proven to be rapists and murderers. I think it’s demeaning to women like Laken Riley and Jocelyn Nungara and Rachel Morin that they’re no longer with us because of the policies of this administration, and that’s what voters and your viewers care about, John,” Leavitt responded.

This ploy closely resembles (and may foreshadow) the way a transnational network of far-right provocateurs has blamed violence on migrants—first in Dublin and then in the UK—in order to incite riots. This is a point I also made to LOLGOP in our latest bonus video for Ball of Threads Patron subscribers.

But there is a way to counter Trump’s focus on illegal immigrants who commit crimes: the growing number of Trump pardon recipients who have already committed other crimes.

In recent weeks, two stories have emerged about individuals who were pardoned by Trump but then went on to commit even more crimes.

Two weeks ago, Maggie and Mike reunited Trump’s old obstruction team to write about Jonathan Braun again.

In their second story about Braun, they described how Braun used his ties to the Kushners to have his sentence commuted, thwarting prosecutors’ efforts to get him to cooperate against others.

To secure his release, Braun’s family used a connection to Charles Kushner, the father of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser, to get the case to Trump. Jared Kushner’s White House office drafted the language used in the press release announcing reduced sentences for Braun and others.

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The reduced sentence was a blow to an ambitious criminal investigation led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, aimed at punishing members of the predatory lending industry who harmed small businesses. Braun and prosecutors negotiated a cooperation agreement in which he would be released from prison in exchange for ratting out industry insiders and possibly even wearing a wiretap. But the reduced sentence immediately destroyed the government’s influence over Braun.

Since his release, Braun has had other legal problems, including his predatory lending. Then last month he was arrested (and released on his own recognizance) on charges of beating his father-in-law and wife.

On Tuesday, police on Long Island arrested Mr. Braun after he allegedly struck his 75-year-old father-in-law in the head. Mr. Braun struck his father-in-law twice as he tried to protect his daughter from Mr. Braun, who chased her as the couple argued in their home, the Nassau County district attorney’s office said.

According to court documents, Mr. Braun’s wife told police that Mr. Braun had attacked her twice in the past five weeks. On July 17, the court documents state, Mr. Braun threw his wife from a bed to the floor, “causing her severe pain and bruising her legs.”

Last week, on August 12, Mr. Braun threw her to the ground and punched her several times in the head, causing her “significant pain and bruising” to her arms, legs and head and making her dizzy, the documents said.

Judd Legum wrote today about another case of a man who was freed thanks to significant Trump ties: Jaime Davidson, who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1993 for the murder of a police officer involved in a drug transaction.

Davidson was convicted of murdering Wallie Howard Jr., who was working undercover as a federal agent. Howard was shot in the back of the head in a Syracuse, New York, supermarket parking lot in 1990. Authorities said Davidson was a drug kingpin in New York and recruited three men to rob Howard of $42,000, which Howard planned to use to buy four pounds of cocaine.

Robert Lawrence, a teenager at the time, testified at trial that Davidson gave him a .357 revolver several hours before he shot Howard. Although Davidson was not present when Howard was killed, prosecutors successfully argued that Howard’s death was a reasonably foreseeable consequence of Davidson’s planned robbery.

On July 2, 1993, Davidson was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Davidson received a reduced sentence because his lawyer is married to a lawyer with close ties to the Trump Organization, Alan Futerfas (who, among other things, is alleged to have suppressed Russia-related emails from Mueller subpoenas and recently represented one of the men convicted of insider trading in Truth Social stock).

In the final days of Trump’s presidency, Davidson avoided the Office of the Pardon Attorney and sought help directly from Trump. Davidson’s attorney, Betty Schein, had close ties to the Trump White House. Schein and her husband, Alan Futerfas, represented people connected to the Trump Organization, including Donald Trump Jr.

Like Braun, Davidson was arrested and convicted of abusing his wife.

On March 31, 2023, just over two years after Davidson was released by Trump, Davidson was arrested in Orlando, Florida, and charged with assault by strangulation and domestic battery. Davidson was accused of assaulting Nayeli Chang, his wife of five months.

Legum mentions another repeat Trump offender: Eliyahu Weinstein, a fraudster who, according to the Justice Department indictment, committed fraud again shortly after his release.

But he says something surprising: He claims, “Davidson is the first person pardoned by Trump who is known to have been convicted of another crime.”

That doesn’t take into account Rand and Ron Paul’s colleague Jesse Benton, who was convicted in 2022 of helping a Russian donate to Trump’s 2016 campaign. He had already been pardoned for numerous previous campaign finance crimes, but committed the second campaign crime before being pardoned for the first.

The Justice Department had considered retrying Philip Esformes on Medicare fraud charges, but that case ended in a plea deal in February that left him serving time on his sentence.

More importantly, Legum ignores a much clearer example: Steve Bannon, who was pardoned for his Build the Wall fraud on the same day Davidson, Weinstein, and Braun had their sentences commuted, January 19, 2021. Bannon is currently serving a four-month sentence for ignoring the committee’s January 6 subpoena, a crime he committed in October 2021.

While his trial has been delayed, Bannon is currently scheduled to stand trial in New York State on the same fraud charges that his three accomplices were convicted of on December 9. (Bannon was also considered an accomplice in the trial of Guo Wengui, but was never charged himself.)

And Bannon may be the best of those pardoned by Trump, given the speed with which he fell back into crime.

Four days after Roger Stone was pardoned on December 24, he discussed the January 6 event with Trump in person, reportedly discussing Trump’s plan to speak.

A few days later, at a dinner on the evening of December 27, Stone thanked President Trump. In a Parler post, Stone wrote that he “personally thanked President Trump tonight for his pardon” and also recommended that the president “appoint a special counsel” to “stop those who are attempting to steal the 2020 election through voter fraud.” Stone also wrote that he wanted to “ensure that Donald Trump remains our President.”245 He concluded by adding, “#StopTheSteal” and “#rogerstonedidnothingwrong.”246 The Select Committee has learned that Stone discussed the January 6 event with the president, likely at the same dinner on December 27.247 The president told Stone that he was “considering speaking.”248

And Stone’s speech at a rally in Florida on January 3, 2021, was the basis for the conviction of Proud Boys Dan Scott and Chris Worrell for obstruction of justice.

On January 3, 2021, Daniel Scott, Worrell, and other members of their local Proud Boy chapter attended a “Stop the Steal” rally in Naples, Florida. The keynote speaker at the event was Roger Stone. Daniel Scott helped Stone up a ladder that Stone was using to address the crowd. During the speech, Stone claimed that the 2020 presidential election was rigged due to voter fraud, and urged Florida’s U.S. Senators to vote against the certification of the Electoral College votes. Stone stated, “Rick Scott has a fundamental choice. He will stand up for the Constitution…” At this point, Daniel Scott shouted, “Or give him the rope!” At another point in the rally, Daniel Scott chanted “Stop the Steal!” through a bullhorn, along with the crowd at the rally.

It may have taken no more than ten days for Trump’s pardon recipients to return to their criminal activities. That’s not surprising: For those close to Trump (including Bernie Kerik, who played a key role in Rudy Giuliani’s cultivation of the Big Lie), he often pardoned them so they could use their skills on his behalf.

Trump wants to spread fear about the very small percentage of migrants who become criminals.

But the percentage of people Trump bailed out of prison (or spared altogether) who still ended up back in crime is much higher.

That’s not so strange. After all, they are Trump’s people.