Trump Pardons More Republicans After They Show Remorse For Their Cri--HA HA HA
He pardoned them because they were Trump supporters, what other reason did he need.
Since he returned to the presidency in January, a short 1,000 years ago, Donald Trump has wielded his uncheckable pardon power with all the restraint of a toddler set loose in a McDonald’s ball pit. In that time, two criteria have emerged for a person hoping that America’s favorite dementia-addled mush-brain will grant them relief no matter how righteous their prosecution or how guilty they are:
Be a political or financial supporter of either Donald Trump or one of the businesses his sons are allegedly running without his input.
See #1.
The latest lucky bozos are former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his one-time chief of staff Cade Cothren. Longtime Wonketeers may remember Casada and Cothren from a time in 2019 when they ham-handedly tried to frame a student activist named Justin Jones for allegedly violating a no-contact order to stay away from Casada, an order granted after Casada accused Jones of dumping hot coffee on him. Jones said it was actually a few drops of iced tea that spilled accidentally, and we believe him, because Casada and Cothren are racist pieces of shit, as some texts anonymously provided to Tennessee super-reporter Phil Williams showed at the time.
And if the name Justin Jones sounds familiar, yes, he was later elected to the Tennessee Legislature as a representative from Nashville. He was then one of two Black members expelled in 2023 for staging a protest against gun violence on the floor of the Legislature, only to be immediately returned to office by the Nashville Metropolitan Council, which was empowered to name a replacement and voted unanimously to choose Jones to replace himself.
Justin Jones Already Back In TN House. Your Turn, Memphis! Send Justin Pearson Back And Be Legends!
Casada was no longer in the Tennessee House by then, because he had resigned the year before when he and Cothren were indicted on an assload of corruption charges. The two men were accused of forming a fake company run by a fictitious man named Matthew Phoenix that scored $52,000 in taxpayer funds to run a mailer program for other lawmakers.
What losers. If you’re going to be corrupt, go all in and grift billions like Trump has done. Fifty-two grand is nothing. After you split it, you still will barely have enough cash to plunk down for a used Honda Civic.
Anyway, the two men were tried this past May. Casada was convicted on 17 of 19 counts of wire fraud and bribery, among other charges, and Cothren was convicted on all 19 counts. (A judge later threw out the convictions on three counts while leaving the rest in place.) How guilty were they? Their defense team didn’t bother putting any witnesses on the stand. Either they were super-confident about an acquittal, or they somehow already knew the fix was in with Trump. Who knows?
In September, Casada was sentenced to three years in the federal pokey while Cothren got 2.5 years. They were both supposed to report to prison later this month. We can’t find a reference to which prison, but we’re betting it was one of those minimum-security camps with pickleball courts. These crimes, while crimes, do not exactly call for hard time. On the other hand, prison is still prison.
But now, Casada and Cothren won’t even have to do that little:
A White House official said Thursday night that Trump approved the pardons for Casada and Cothren because the justice department under Trump’s Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, “significantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue”.
Well, it’s a minor issue for Donald Trump, who probably snickered when he heard about the amount of money these two scored off their scam. Assuming he knew what the convictions were for and didn’t simply sign whatever napkin scrap his aides thrust in front of him during one of those brief moments when he’s not dozing off in a meeting.
However, for people who still believe in good government and in making an example of elected politicians who betray the public trust in order to rip off taxpayers, it’s yet one more corrupt bullshit deal from President Bad Brain.
Tellingly, there was a third person involved in the scheme, another state representative, who did not receive a pardon. Robin Smith was a Republican who pleaded guilty to one charge of wire fraud in exchange for cooperating with the prosecution. She did not get a pardon, although her attorneys have been asking for one. Presumably she still has to report to prison in January to serve her eight months.
Now, maybe Trump still pardons Smith in the next two months. But knowing Trump and the slobbering vipers he surrounds himself with, would it surprise anyone if we find out they are taking a “snitches get stitches” attitude towards Smith? Or in this case, probably more like “snitches get eight months of macrame class surrounded by housewives who forged a bunch of Vicodin prescriptions.” But still.
Pardoning Casada and Cotheren, however, fits with Trump’s pattern of showing mercy to his party members and business executives. A couple of weeks ago he pardoned Changpeng Zhao, the founder of crypto exchange Binance, after Zhao was convicted of not lifting a finger to prevent criminal and terrorist organizations from using his platform to launder money. But the Trump family has made a staggering $4.5 billion since January just from its cryptocurrency ventures, which are hosted on an online trading platform run by Binance.
The president didn’t even know who he was pardoning, he later claimed in interviews. But Zhao had been smart enough to hire a friend of Don Jr. to lobby for him. Considering Zhao is still worth $85 billion, this must have been the greatest bargain anyone has seen since Crazy Eddie was giving away TVs.
And that’s only the latest egregious example. We all know Trump famously pardoned 1,500 January 6 rioters. The list of his pardons since January consists largely of Republican politicians convicted of corruption and financial crimes, law enforcement officers convicted of accepting bribes and other corruption and financial crimes, crypto and other executives convicted of financial crimes, businesspeople convicted of financial crimes but whose mommies donated millions of dollars to Trump or one of his aligned PACs ...
And so on.
He also pardoned former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich after having already commuted his sentence, in what we can only guess was a “hair game recognize hair game” gesture.
So look for federal prisons to be empty of anyone who ever voted for or supported Donald Trump by 2028. Unfortunately that list is going to include Donald Trump.
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There is no such thing as a "minor" case of public corruption, in my humble opinion.
Tell the thousands of ICE kidnap victims about this promising legal avenue for appeals – “significantly over-prosecuted these individuals for a minor issue”.