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Donald Trump has granted clemency to Steve Bannon, his former White House strategist, as part of a broad round of pardons in one of his final acts ahead of Joe Biden’s inauguration as president on Wednesday.
Mr Bannon was accused last year of defrauding hundreds of thousands of Trump supporters who donated to a crowdfunding campaign to build a wall on the US-Mexico border touted by the president during his 2016 election campaign. Mr. Bannon pleaded guilty and was released on bail pending trial.
Mr. Trump has not granted preventive pardons for himself or any of his family members. The president had pitched the idea in conversations with White House staff after losing the election. Most constitutional scholars had argued that he could not forgive himself but the theory was never tested in court.
The decision to forgive Mr. Bannon, one of the most controversial people in Mr. Trump’s circle who handled the final leg of the 2016 presidential campaign, will come under heavy criticism.
Mr Bannon’s Twitter account was suspended in November after saying that Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI, and Anthony Fauci, a prominent member of the White House coronavirus task force, should be beheaded. Mr Bannon said the heads of the men, who had contradicted Mr Trump, should be placed on spikes outside the White House to warn other members of the Trump administration not to cross paths with the president.
Mr. Trump also pardoned rapper Lil Wayne.
Last month, Lil Wayne pleaded guilty to possession of a loaded gold-plated handgun and faced up to 10 years in prison. The musician appeared to endorse Mr Trump during the 2020 election campaign when he tweeted a photo of himself and the president, and said he supported his criminal justice reform efforts and his economic agenda for African Americans.
The pardons came eight hours before Mr. Trump left the White House and flew to Florida, where he will take up his post-presidential residence at his Mar-a-Lago complex. They also came as the Senate prepares to try Mr Trump over his condemnation by the House for instigating the storming of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6.
The decisions came a month after granting dozens of controversial pardons and commutations, including Paul Manafort, his first campaign manager, and Roger Stone, the self-proclaimed dirty political trickster and confidant of the president.
Other presidents have granted divisive pardons, including Bill Clinton, who granted mercy to Marc Rich, the founder of commodities trader Glencore who was a fugitive on charges including racketeering.
But Mr. Trump stands out for the number of controversial decisions. Jack Goldsmith, a professor at Harvard Law School, analyzed his pardons last year and concluded that the overwhelming majority went to people with whom he had a personal or political connection.
Mr Trump also pardoned four men last month who were convicted of murdering Iraqi civilians in Baghdad while working for Blackwater, a private security company formerly owned by Erik Prince. Betsy DeVos, who served as Mr. Trump’s education secretary, is Mr. Prince’s sister.
Mr Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, father of Jared Kushner, who is married to his daughter Ivanka, last month. He also granted clemency to three former US Republican officials who had been convicted of crimes.
A year ago, Mr. Trump commuted the sentence of Rod Blagojevich, a former Democratic governor of Illinois who was sentenced to 14 years after being convicted of bribery and other charges. He also pardoned Michael Milken, the former “king of junk bond”, who in 1990 was convicted of securities fraud.
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