On his last day in office in 2021, Donald Trump pardoned loan shark Jonathan Braun, effectively destroying a Department of Justice investigation, according to a report by The New York Times.
Braun, convicted of running an illegal marijuana cartel, was one of 142 people, including rappers Lil Wayne and Kodak Black, who were issued surprise pardons by the outgoing president as his presidency was drawing to a close, The Independent reports.
By the time he was pardoned, Braun had served a quarter of his ten-year sentence.
But when his sentence was commuted, it dealt a “substantial blow” to a criminal justice investigation that the DOJ was using to target members of the predatory lending industry who were harming small businesses.
The pardon effectively “destroyed” any leverage the government had over the investigation, the Times reports.
But what’s even worse, is that the report highlighted the ties between Braun, Jared Kushner, and his father Charles Kushner in pointing the pardon proposal toward Trump.
Braun’s family allegedly used a connection to Charles Kushner to alert Trump to the case.
It doesn’t stop there — the report also mentions the language in the news release announcing commutations for Braun and others was drafted by Kushner’s White House office.
How comfy is that?
Since his release from prison in early 2021, Braun jumped right back into the merchant cash advance industry, according to the report, and he’s facing renewed allegations from regulators and some customers who have accused him of using intimidating tactics.
Braun’s family hired mucky-muck attorney Alan Dershowitz, a Trump-supporting lawyer who has connections to Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to push for his request. People who interacted with Braun told investigators that they learned of the Braun family’s role in gaining the commutation, noting their connection to the Kushner family, the report found.
Trump has already stated that if he is re-elected president (ugh), he intends to issue more pardons, especially for those convicted in connection with the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He has even told his allies privately that he will pardon higher-level people who were involved in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Trump is a study on how to destroy democracy. What have we learned from him? If you have enough connections you can do whatever you want as long as you have the right connections and as long as you can hire attorneys who are craven enough to do your bidding.
As I said earlier, ugh.
I’ve always thought one of the reasons these dickwads kept coming after Hunter Biden was to avoid the good guys from coming after Jared. “See, they’re doing the same thing,” kinda crap.
Trump.would have pardoned Bin Laden if Osama had kissed Fat Donor’s party fat arse with sufficient fervor and a large enough chunk of cash filtered through Obama’s family business. Nothing to see here; move along.
Well yeah wasn’t that the people that he invited to Camp David on 9/11. Oh Trump says you wouldn’t have to worry about the extremists attacking us. He doesn’t say that would be because he would be in bed with them. I guess if you are a Trumper you better learn to swing both ways in case one of the boys takes a liking to the way you fill out your jeans. Gender not relevant!