Well either there is a crime to be found or there isn't and a pardon does not prevent Congress from investigating anyways.

The good news is that it wipes out 5th amendment concerns and these criminals can be compelled to testify. If they get caught lying then perjury charges can still be brought against them.

Yes, he was investigated by the House for years and they came up with nothing. The difference is they had a suspect but no crime and were looking for a crime, while the Jan 6th investigation had a crime and were looking for the person, or persons involved.

EDIT: Hunter was pardoned for his tax evasion conviction in California. He had payed back all the taxes he owed by then but was used as a political theater football instead of given amnesty like a normal citizen would have been.

Sorry, Biden's Pardons Are Much Worse Than Trump's | Opinion Published Jan 22, 2025 at 7:50 AM EST


Many Democrats and media outlets have criticized Trump's mass clemency for the January 6 defendants, even as they casually ignored President Biden's. But let's put aside the hypocrisy for a moment to examine the real differences between the two sets of pardons, regardless of one's views of their merits.
First, Biden granted pardons and commutations to more than 8,000 individuals, which is more than any other modern president. Thousands of Biden's clemency grants were to serious criminals, including murderers, child killers, child abusers, and the biggest municipal embezzler in history, Rita Crundwell. Several of the grants benefitted well-connected Democrats. In both 2022 and 2024, Biden abused his pardon power to achieve mass sentencing reductions that Congress refused to pass by law. President Obama did the same thing when he issued mass commutations of drug sentences.
Second, it's obviously not principle but politics that drove Biden's pardons; Biden's post-election mass death row commutations did not follow his self-proclaimed opposition to the death penalty. He left three men on death row whose commutations would have politically harmed Democrats. He did not commute the sentences of Dzhokar Tsarnaev (Boston Marathon bomber), Dylann Roof (murderer of nine black churchgoers in Charleston), and Robert Bowers (murderer of 11 worshippers a synagogue in Squirrel Hill, PA). Biden's alleged opposition to the death penalty also did not prevent DOJ from filing capital murder charges against Luigi Mangione.
Third, President Biden needs to pardon his family, officials, and allies only because he fears the very lawfare that he invented. Biden's DOJ broke more than two centuries of history to prosecute a former president and the candidate of the major opposition political party. He is like an arsonist who demands more spending on fire departments. Because of his stated fear of retaliation, Biden pardoned his family and associates before prosecutors ever launched investigations. These pardons were to Biden's own benefit, as their reciipients are much less likely to disclose any information that directly implicate President Biden to the family's alleged "pay to play, 10 percent for the Big Guy" schemes.
Contrast that with Trump's clemency, which did not directly benefit him or his family, and covered defendants who were actually convicted or charged, unlike Biden's preemptive pardons that covered up to 10 years' worth of potential and actual criminal activity for his family and allies.
n Trump's case, almost all of the defendants had undergone arrest, trial, conviction, and punishment. If Trump had followed Biden's example, as all future presidents may, he would have issued blanket pardons for all of the January 6 defendants on January 7, 2021. But he did not, and instead allowed the criminal justice system to proceed first, measured the results, and then decided whether pardons were warranted.
Crucially, President Trump also went to the public for approval before he issued the pardons. Biden told the American people he would not pardon his son, Hunter, and then issued his grants after the voters had rejected the incumbent party. Trump, by contrast, repeatedly stated on the campaign trail his belief that the J6 defendants, particularly the non-violent ones, were treated much worse than regular suspects, suffering from long solitary confinement and unusually heavy jail sentences. Trump could have used Biden's own words to justify granting clemency to the J6 defendants, because they "do not deserve to be the targets of unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions."
Trump also has solid legal precedent to grant clemency to those many defendants whom the Biden/Garland DOJ charged with "obstruction or impediment of an official proceeding." In June 2024, the Supreme Court in Fischer v. U.S. rejected the DOJ's misusing Sarbanes-Oxley and that charge, which built upon the Court's precedents in cases like McDonnelland Yates. The J6 clemency extended the Supreme Court's reading to those who had been convicted beforehand.
It's not accident that President Biden waited until after the election to issue his most controversial pardons. Indeed, he waited until the last 15 minutes before the inauguration. Biden hid them from the public and refused to answer any questions about them. Trump by contrast openly discussed granting clemency to the J6 defendants throughout the campaign and gave the American people a chance to decide. He granted clemency on his first day in office, not his last.
Democrats have resorted to pardons because they appear to expect lawfare to continue. DOJ released Jack Smith's special counsel J6 report even though Trump had won the election and DOJ could no longer pursue charges. It is even trying to release the special counsel report about the Florida classified documents case, even though Trump's co-defendants are entitled to a presumption of innocence until proven guilty. Both President Trump and Attorney General–designate Pam Bondi are positioned to stop the lawfare, but only if the Democrats abjure their politicization of criminal justice. Lawfare can descend on Democrats as easily as on Republicans.



https://www.newsweek.com/sorry-biden...pinion-2018843

Looks like your side has been practicing it for a long time.




https://i.imgur.com/pCL9wP4.jpg

Just interesting to see, what happens the next few weeks.

By pardoning those 1600, Trump in principle pardoned himself. :03:
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Its almost biozarr to imply that Musk wanted to give the (neo-)fascist greeting. Also, this claim formally cannot be supported. The facist greeting has the person staring ahead and raising the arm, but Musk swung his hand from the hip and upwards, following it with his eyes, as if he collected something from the belt or pocket, and then threw it out in distribution. Thats an old triumphant gesture of victorious Romans on sort of parades or any public events where they - well, celebrated any sort of triumph or achievment. Sometimes indeed bread, flowers or sesterzen coins were thrown into the masses this way. Musk then turned in place, and repeated the same to the crowd behind him.

In Germany, candies for the kids are being thrown from rolling waggons on parade during "Karneval" pretty much the same way like Musk demonstrated, and the same can be seen in many other countries on many different opportunities. Is carneval now a Nazi festivity?

Also, Musk said 2021 that he suffers form Asperger. And Asperger people sometimes can find social interaction difficult to master, which sometimes makes them socially interacting ina clumsy or "helpless" way. Social competence and Asperger are no natural friends, but maintain a difficult relation.

Priceless. :up:


Greg Gutfeld and the Fox Network have been pointing out these these ambiguities as well.


With regards to the Trump Pardon's, President Trump was transparent that he would Pardon those involved in the Jan. 6 incident. Biden on the other hand lied that he wouldn't pardon his son or Family..

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iTzdi-Lo1fU



<O>

(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung] Is Musk not moving into the White House after all? For a long time it was unclear what Donald Trump planned to do with Elon Musk's position for government efficiency. A decree now provides initial answers. Does Musk like them?

The "United States Digital Service" is located in a small brick building in Lafayette Park in Washington, a stone's throw from the White House. The staff unit, which was created by Barack Obama in 2014 to modernize electronic data processing in the federal administration, was part of the "Office of Management and Budget" (OMB) in the President's Office, which controls the implementation of the federal budget. President Donald Trump has now renamed the staff unit by decree. The abbreviation remains the same: USDS. But it now stands for "United States DOGE Service".

The decree thus created the agency whose establishment Trump had announced under the name "Department of Government Efficiency" after his election victory in November. He announced at the time that his major donor and campaign aide Elon Musk would lead DOGE together with short-term Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to reduce bureaucracy, restructure agencies, drastically reduce regulations and cut wasteful government spending.

The decree, however, assigns DOGE a more modest task. Now it is said that the task of the staff unit is to modernize the technology and software of federal agencies in order to maximize efficiency. It will also be integrated into the government. Initially it was said that, despite the name Department, which in America stands for ministry, it would be an external advisory commission.

When Trump signed the order, he confirmed that Musk would have an office in the White House, but apparently not in the West Wing. It is important to know that the White House stands for the entire "Executive Office", which is not limited to the official residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but is spread across several neighboring buildings. It is therefore quite possible that Musk will move into an office in the brick building at Lafayette Park - and not in the center of power.

Ramaswamy has meanwhile already left DOGE. He is expected to announce his candidacy for governor of Ohio next week. The fact that his upcoming election campaign is no longer compatible with an agency head is, however, only superficially decisive. It is said that substantive differences with Musk and with Trump's entourage prompted him to take the step.

Both the reduction in the tasks of the new agency and its integration into the government, where the "administrator" will report to the White House Chief of Staff, suggest that Susie Wiles is behind the regulation. She is Trump's Chief of Staff. As such, she not only heads the government's control center. Above all, she is responsible for avoiding chaos. Even in the period between election day and the inauguration, Musk's proximity to Trump had been a thorn in the side of his transition team. The decree now reads as if budget and government policy would remain in the hands of the OMB in the presidential office.

Wiles sees herself as a gatekeeper to the Oval Office. The idea of ​​having the hyperactive Musk next to her in the West Wing would probably have been a horror for her. That does not mean that Trump has given up his intention to dismantle the administrative state. OMB Director Russel Vought is also pursuing the agenda. And he has government experience: he held the post during Trump's first term.

According to the decree, the DOGE authority will be led by an "administrator". No name is mentioned. Will it be Musk? Or will the tech billionaire act freely and leave the post to one of the two people who took care of the preparations during the transition period? Those were Musk's confidant Steve Davis and Brad Smith, who worked for the government during Trump's first term.

In any case, the staff unit is also intended to influence other parts of the government: All authorities will be assigned four DOGE employees to coordinate the modernization work. DOGE is, by the way, an authority with an expiration date. The decree stipulates that the task will end on July 4, 2026. It is the 250th anniversary of the signing of the American Declaration of Independence.
-------------------

It is an established pattern in Trump's biography that he first raises new heroes that he has chosen to an ultra-high, the highest of all pedestals - and if they later show even the slightest signs of something that he perceives as weakness, error or lack of unconditional loyalty, he immediately and mercilessly plunges them even deeper into the abyss, rushes after them with a sledgehammer in his hand and beats the rubble even further, and condemns the mere memory of the fallen angel in the most obscene way. From a professional psychologist's point of view - a very interesting case. :)


I would consider it extremely dangerous to be close to someone like Trump or to trust his declarations of love. That can change dramatically from one hour to the next. I wonder if Elon Musk, who is rather clumsy in social behavior, has understood that...?

He'd make a better Governer for Ohio then the last few Clowns.

The theme for this presidency.
https://youtu.be/-XCTI935ahQ?si=j_qJS48fTOAJqOQp

^ be careful showing all your good stuff too soon, you've got to make it through four years :shucks:
https://youtu.be/yjrzGc9HSYc?si=OJd4f5L9Vzk_VSmf

:p2:
https://i.ibb.co/dryN93G/melania-Clint-Eastwood.jpg

https://s2-oglobo.glbimg.com/uOCdcXZ...ng/arte-1-.png
https://www.ilgiornaleditalia.it/res...?1737474129270

And so it begins:

[BBC] Amendment to allow third Trump term proposed by Republican

A congressman has proposed an amendment which would allow Donald Trump to serve a third term as US president.Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee, has introduced a joint resolution to alter the 22nd Amendment, which currently prohibits anyone from serving more than two terms as president.
His new wording would allow a president to serve three terms, as long as only two of them are consecutive. It’s a proposal squarely intended for Trump, which Ogles makes clear in a statement.
"This amendment would allow President Trump to serve three terms, ensuring that we can sustain the bold leadership our nation so desperately needs," he says.
But amending the Constitution is extremely difficult, requiring the support of two-thirds of the House and Senate. Even the backing of every Republican in congress - which is far from guaranteed - would not be enough.
--------------
The sobering thing is he means that serious.
Trump is 78, btw.