US President Donald Trump issued 15 pardons before Christmas that have all been condemned by Democrats as attempts to exonerate “his friends”.
Amongst those who have been granted a full pardon are disgraced congressmen and four men convicted over a 2007 massacre of civilians in Iraq.
Mr Trump, also pardoned his former campaign aide George Papadopoulos, 33, who pleaded guilty for lying to FBI agents as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
“The defendant’s crime was serious and caused damage to the Government’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election,” a sentencing recommendation memo from then-US Special Counsel Mr Mueller had said.
Before the 2016 election, he famously attended a meeting at the Kensington Wine Rooms with Australia’s High Commissioner to the UK, Alexander Downer, where Papadopoulos bragged that one of the reasons he was confident Mr Trump would win was because Russia might release information damaging to Hillary Clinton.
Mr Downer reported the meeting to the Australian Government, who passed the information to US intelligence agencies. It was later included as part of the reasoning for an investigation of Mr Trump’s campaign and its ties to Russia.
Mr Papadopoulos served 12 days of a 14-day sentence in federal prison, then was placed on a 12-month supervised release.
The White House said Mr Papadopoulos was charged with “a process-related crime, one count of making false statements,” as part of the Mueller probe, which Mr Trump had denounced as a witch hunt.
“Today’s pardon helps correct the wrong that Mueller’s team inflicted on so many people,” the White House said.
In addition to Papadopoulos, 36-year-old Alex van der Zwaan, who lied to US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators about contacts with an official in Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign was also let off the hook.
Last month, the outgoing US President pardoned his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI during the Russia investigation.
Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said Mr Trump was abusing his power before conceding to Joe Biden.
“Trump is doling out pardons, not on the basis of repentance, restitution or the interests of justice, but to reward his friends and political allies, to protect those who lie to cover up for him, to shelter those guilty of killing civilians, and to undermine an investigation that uncovered massive wrongdoing,” Schiff stressed.
