Susan B. Anthony, women’s suffrage leader arrested for illegally voting in 1872
Trump announced August 18, 2020, that he would grant a posthumous pardon …
Susan B. Anthony, women’s suffrage leader arrested for illegally voting in 1872 Trump announced August 18, 2020, that he would grant a posthumous pardon to Anthony for her conviction of illegally voting in 1872, a time when only men were permitted to vote. The women’s suffragist was fined $100 for the offense. Trump’s announcement came on the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which granted women the right to vote. „She was never pardoned. Did you know that? She was never pardoned,“ Trump said Tuesday. „What took so long?“ Anthony’s legacy has recently seen a surge in popularity among some conservatives, who have linked her to the anti-abortion movement, though historians have disputed that Anthony held anti-abortion sentiments. Roger Stone, former Republican strategist convicted in the Russia investigation On July 10, 2020, Trump commuted what he described as Stone’s „unjust“ three-year prison sentence. The former Republican strategist and longtime Trump ally was convicted as part of the Russia investigation conducted by the special counsel Robert Mueller. A jury convicted Stone of seven felony counts, including making false statements to the FBI and to Congress, as well as witness tampering and obstruction of justice. In a statement announcing Stone’s commutation, the White House pilloried the Mueller investigation and described Stone as „a victim of the Russia Hoax that the Left and its allies in the media perpetuated for years in an attempt to undermine the Trump Presidency.“ The commutation was so controversial it prompted Mueller himself to speak out publicly for the first time in a year, writing in a Washington Post op-ed that „the Russia investigation was of paramount importance. Stone was prosecuted and convicted because he committed federal crimes.“ Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and three others Among several presidential commutations on February 18, 2020, the most noticeable name among the commuted sentences was Blagojevich, who was set for release in 2024 and has insisted throughout his prison term that he is innocent, according to news outlets that have interviewed him. The former governor was convicted on corruption charges, including wire fraud, attempted extortion, and making false statements. Trump said in August 2019 that he believed Blagojevich had served enough time and that he was moved by watching Blagojevich’s wife defend him on television, hinting at the clemency that would come months later. „I watched his wife, on television, saying that the young girl’s father has been in jail for now seven years, and they’ve never seen him outside of an orange uniform,“ Trump said. „Not a friend of mine. He’s a Democrat, not a Republican. It’s Illinois. I think he was treated very, very unfairly, just as others were. Just as others were.“ Here are three other women whose sentences Trump commuted that day: Ex-NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik and six others On February 18, 2020, Trump granted full pardons to seven people: Ronen Nahmani, nonviolent, first-time offender convicted of selling synthetic marijuana Nahmani had originally been sentenced to 20 years in prison for distributing synthetic marijuana, according to the Office of the Pardon Attorney. His commutation on July 29,2019, garnered widespread support from lawmakers from both parties, notably from Democratic Reps. Hakeem Jeffries and Ted Lieu and Republican Reps. Mark Meadows and Matt Gaetz. The White House said in a statement that Nahmani’s case had certain „extenuating circumstances,“ namely that he was a nonviolent, first-time offender whose wife had terminal cancer and who had five young children. Nahmani’s 11-year-old daughter, Ariella Nahmani, wrote Trump a letter pleading with the president to help her family, saying she feared what would happen if her mother died. „Our lives have become so sad and miserable,“ she wrote. „And now mother being sick I am so scared of her getting worse.“ Ted Suhl, Arkansas businessman convicted of bribery scheme Suhl, an Arkansas businessman, was sentenced in 2016 to seven years in prison for his role in a bribery scheme to boost Medicaid payments to his company. He was set to be released in 2023, but Trump’s commutation set him free four years early. A White House statement about Suhl’s July 29,2019, commutation noted that federal prosecutors in Arkansas declined to pursue the criminal case against him but prosecutors in Washington did. The Arkansas Times, which investigated the allegations against him, reported that Suhl made millions in public money from his faith-based outpatient facilities. Suhl’s clemency request was strongly supported by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a vocal Trump ally. Michael Anthony Tedesco and four other rare pardons with no obvious Trump connection Trump granted five pardons on July 29,2019 to people with whom he didn’t appear to have a direct connection, unlike many of his other clemencies. One of those people, Michael Anthony Tedesco was pardoned by Obama in 2017. But because of a clerical error, his fraud conviction was not pardoned until Trump corrected the issue, according to the White House. Another pardon went to John Richard Bubala, who pleaded guilty in 1990 to improperly transferring automotive equipment in an effort to „help the town,“ according to the White House. Rodney M. Takumi, a member of the Navajo Nation, was pardoned for his 1987 crime of working at an illegal gambling parlor. Trump also pardoned Roy Wayne McKeever, who was arrested in 1989 for transporting marijuana from Mexico to Oklahoma and who is now an „active member of the Sheriffs‘ Association of Texas,“ according to the White House. The final pardon went to Chalmer Lee Williams, who in 1995 helped a friend steal and sell weapons from checked luggage through his work as a baggage handler. The White House said his supervised release from prison was lifted one year early, and his voting rights were restored by Kentucky’s governor in 1995. Mathew Golsteyn and Clint A. Lorance, two soldiers accused of war crimes On November 15,2019, Trump intervened in three military cases. He granted clemency to two US soldiers, one charged with and one convicted of war crimes.
