Joke of the day
Greenland's not for sale.
But is it a joke when Trump is corrupt AF?
Lobbyists "close to Trump" are charging $1m and up to secure presidential pardons for their clients, with some paying as much as $6m. The Wall Street Journal reports a simple process: you give them the money, they talk to someone in Trump's inner circle such as his son, then Trump pardons you.
Donald Trump Jr. walked up with lobbyist Ches McDowell to chat with the president. Trump Jr. at one point pulled McDowell forward to shake the president's hand, according to a livestream broadcast. After they went inside, McDowell took the president aside to discuss a pressing issue, according to people familiar with the matter: One of his clients was seeking a pardon.
The client was Changpeng Zhao, founder of the world's largest crypto exchange, Binance. That afternoon, the president agreed to sign Zhao's pardon, the people said.
The WSJ reports that Binance paid $800,000 lobbying for the pardon with "success fees of as much as $5 million." This is more than it paid in fines, apparently, but clears the way for it to do business in the U.S.
The clemency for Zhao was one in a series of pardons in recent months that have surprised even some of the president's closest advisers. This month alone, Trump pardoned a former Honduran president, Juan Orlando Hernández, who had been convicted of conspiring with cartels to ship 400 tons of cocaine to the U.S.; a Texas Democrat, Henry Cuellar, charged with taking nearly $600,000 in foreign bribes; and a sports executive, Tim Leiweke, who had been indicted by Trump's own Justice Department. … Trump pardoned Hernández so quickly that White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other senior officials had no advance notice. … Trump had asked aides for months if Cuellar would flip to the Republican Party if he pardoned him
In addition to the 1500 Jan 6 rioters he pardoned as soon as he became president, Trump has pardoned 87 more since, easily breaking records. The trick is to slide up to him somewhere he feels at ease and tell him someone is a victim of a witch hunt or unjust prosecution/persecution. Among those making big money? Famed morons and convicted fraudsters Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkmann have found their pot of gold.
Conservative operatives Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman, who themselves pleaded guilty to felony telecommunications fraud in 2022, were paid $960,000 in the second quarter to lobby for a pardon for a former nursing-home operator who pleaded guilty to defrauding the government of $38 million. Trump pardoned the man, Joseph Schwartz, last month.
