Dec. 24 (UPI) — President Donald Trump granted 26 new pardons and commutations on Wednesday including additional pardons for individuals involved in special counsel Robert Mueller‘s Russia investigation.
Trump granted full pardons to his former campaign adviser Roger Stone and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort who were both convicted of multiple crimes related to Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and potential collusion by Trump’s campaign.
Overall, Trump has pardoned five people connected with Mueller’s investigation including his former national security adviser Michael Flynn in November as well as George Papadopoulos, the former foreign policy adviser for Trump’s 2016 campaign, and Dutch lawyer Alex van der Zwaan in another flurry of pardons on Tuesday.
Stone was sentenced to 40 months in prison for lying to Congress during the investigation and Trump had commuted his sentence in July just before he was scheduled to begin the sentence.
The White House on Wednesday said Stone was granted a “full and unconditional” pardon alleging he was treated unfairly by Mueller’s team due to “prosecutorial misconduct.”
Manafort had already served two years of a seven-and-a-half year sentence for tax evasion, fraud and witness tampering in connection with the Russia investigation.
Trump also pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, the father of his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to 16 counts of tax evasion, one count of retaliating against a federal witness and another count of lying to the Federal Election Commission related to $6 million in political contributions and gifts mischaracterized as business expenses.
In a series of 20 pardons and commutations on Tuesday, Trump also pardoned former Republican Reps. Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins as well as four former Blackwater Worldwide military contractors responsible for the shooting deaths of 14 Iraqis in 2007.
