There is a pattern here regarding the list of January 6 pardonees. Yet another one of them is headed back to prison. And of course, he’s been asking his King Donald for another pardon. So far nothing but crickets on that one. And of course he believes he was “serving his country.” That is the tragedy of all of this. The lunatic fringes in the GOP have been there for many decades (the religious nuts that Barry Goldwater warned about, the white supremacists, both Nazi and KKK varieties) the gun fanatics, none of these sects are new in Republican land. But in 2016 the inmates took over the asylum and Trump empowered them to go lou lou. And lou lou they went. Right off their collective rocker. And that’s why the pardoned J6ers keep breaking laws and keep going back to prison.
A Jan. 6 rioter pardoned by President Donald Trump has been sentenced to life in prison after he was later convicted of plotting to assassinate FBI agents and other law enforcement officials.
Federal prosecutors sought a life sentence for Edward Kelley, 36, of Tennessee, last month in a sentencing memo. In November, Kelly was convicted of conspiring to murder agents from the FBI and officers with multiple Tennessee law enforcement agencies after they investigated his role in the Capitol attack.
Kelley had argued that Trump’s sweeping pardon — issued immediately after he returned to the Oval Office for rioters like himself — should also cover his other conviction. Prosecutors disagreed.
“Kelley created a list of specific people he intended to assassinate,” a Justice Department memo said. That included agents from the FBI, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and local departments. “To effectuate his plan, Kelley sought the assistance of others to identify his victims’ pattern of life and to murder them at their offices, homes, and in public places.”
He also planned to attack the Knoxville FBI office using “improvised explosive devices attached to vehicles and drones,” prosecutors said.
The DOJ noted Kelley has shown no remorse.
“Kelley is remorseless and has shown neither a capacity nor desire to rehabilitate,” prosecutors said, adding that he continues to believe not only that the “actions for which he was convicted were justified but that his duty as a self-styled ‘patriot’ compelled him to target East Tennessee law enforcement for assassination.”
In April, Kelly told local news outlet 10 News, “I don’t feel bad for what I did. I was fighting for my country that day.” He said he’s appealed directly to Trump for help, but as of April, had received no response.
That right there is the problem. The remorselessness. That is the sign of a sociopath. And that is Donald Trump’s key characteristic as well, not surprisingly. Will he pardon this guy? Who knows? If Trump keeps abusing the pardon power, maybe we should shut down the court systems altogether.
Trump is supposedly considering pardoning Sean P. Diddy Combs. That was discussed at the White House today. And George Santos is reporting to prison the 25th of this month. I would expect his pleas to Pennsylvania Avenue to increase in number and in frenzy. Maybe Trump will pardon him, too.
What it is to live in a country where one wonders on a daily basis which lunatic or fraudster will not have to be accountable for their crimes because the lunatic fraudster in the White House has decided to abuse the pardon power (once more) in their behalf.
Would a mafia Don behave any differently?
Combs certainly has the $$ to draw attention to his case; Santos has a profile though with an unfortunate history and I doubt that Kelley has anything to offer. That’s my book/bingo card
Well, unfortunately, Combs wasn’t found guilty of the more serious charges, the racketeering and sex trafficking. The two convictions against him were basically violations of the Mann Act (the thing that got boxer Jack Johnson and rock legend Chuck Berry) which are, granted, serious charges but, as the more serious charges didn’t lead to guilty verdicts, Drumpf probably won’t see much need to pardon Combs. (The judge presiding over the case has already indicated that whatever the final sentence, the 10 months or so that Combs has spent in jail will be considered as part of his sentence. So, unless Combs’ sentence is the maximum (20-30 years–10-15 years per charge, depending on the ages of the victims) along with “substantial” fines (there doesn’t seem to be a minimum amount, Drumpf probably won’t really bother. There is also a note that a penalty may involve restitution to the victims, including paying for therapy and other support and there’s no actual mandate that combinations of the penalties (e.g., say a total of 5 years in prison, $5 million in fines and ordering another $5 million to groups for victims/survivors) wouldn’t be out of the question.
And I really think Drumpf will probably have some of his advisors recommend he wait to consider any kind of pardon for a while (maybe after next year’s midterms) given his own history. And, considering the racist nature of his closest advisors, Combs might just want to go ahead and accept a couple of years behind bars (I can’t imagine Stephen “Nosferatu” Miller would be too eager for Dear Leader to be seen pardoning one of “those people” for a sex crime).
I wonder how many of these pardoned “insurgents” have become ICE agents.
We really need to lock down this pardon power.
It should at least require sign-off by one other branch of government.
Though, hopefully, we won’t see another lunatic in the office again.