The Spark

the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist

“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx

Trump Has a Pardon Party

Mar 2, 2020

Donald Trump went on a spree, issuing pardons and commutations to a long list of white-collar criminals and corrupt officials. He pardoned Michael Milken, convicted of insider trading after making fortunes on junk bonds whose schemes led to the collapse of the savings-and-loan industry. He also commuted the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who sold Barack Obama’s vacated Senate seat after Obama became president.

And that’s only the beginning. He pardoned or commuted the sentences of corporate thieves and hackers, bribers, Medicare fraudsters, and tax evaders connected to his political friends. It’s a laundry list of white collar crime committed by wealthy friends.

Trump is certainly not the first president to hand out a pardon to wealthy political friends. In the waning moments of his presidency Bill Clinton pardoned Marc Rich, convicted of tax evasion, who gave one million dollars to the Democratic Party, $100,000 to Hillary Clinton’s Senate Campaign, and $450,000 to the Clinton Library. Trump, though, puts the others to shame in his flagrant willingness to help out rich, powerful crooks.

Trump makes it plain: American justice is about who you know and how much money you have!