More than a month and a half after the presidential election and less than four weeks before the inauguration of Joe Biden, on January 20, Donald Trump stubbornly refuses to recognize his defeat ... But the American president is taking advantage of his last days at the White House to grant a series of pardons and other clemency measures that are causing great controversy here.
All American presidents have the right of pardon and until recently, Trump, who has just rejected a stimulus package from Congress, had used it very little, much more stingy in this regard than his predecessor Barack Obama.
But the latter followed the directives of his Ministry of Justice.
Trump, faithful to his iconoclastic character, short-circuits traditional procedures, with one goal: to protect and forgive his allies.
Blackwater guards commit massacre of civilians in Iraq
On Tuesday, he thus granted about fifteen pardons and five other measures of clemency.
In particular to two of his allies, George Papadopoulos, a diplomatic adviser, and Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer, both implicated in the investigation of special prosecutor Robert Mueller into a possible collusion between Russia and his campaign team in 2016 "Today's forgiveness makes it possible to right the wrongs inflicted by the Mueller team on so many people", welcomed the White House in a statement.
President Trump, who had promised in 2016 that he would clean up the “smelly swamp” of Washington, also forgave three former Republican deputies who were among his supporters but all three condemned ... for fraud.
But it is above all the pardon granted to four guards from the private security company Blackwater that is causing controversy.
These former soldiers of the American army were serving heavy sentences.
They had been convicted of a fatal shooting that left 14 civilian victims in Iraq in September 2007, a massacre that stunned America.
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In July, it was Roger Stone, a friend of Trump involved in the Russian affair who had benefited from this presidential leniency.
Stone had thus been able to escape the 42 months in prison to which he had been sentenced.
Last month, the president granted a pardon to his former national security adviser Michael Flynn involved in the same affair, although the latter admitted to lying to the FBI.
The protagonists of the case who had collaborated with the justice system, such as Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, did not benefit from the billionaire's leniency.
Rudolph Giuliani could also benefit
Jack Goldsmith, professor at Harvard, calculated that 88% of the pardons granted by Trump until Tuesday were concerned with people who had personal connections with the president or people who helped him in his political objectives… "If you lie for protect the president, you are pardoned, if you are a corrupt politician who supports the president, you are pardoned, if you kill civilians in the midst of war, you are pardoned ”, rebelled on Tuesday Adam Schiff, one of the democratic leaders most prominent in the House of Representatives and one of the billionaire's most bitter opponents.
And the pace of graces could accelerate in the days to come.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, now Trump's lawyer threatened by federal justice, and perhaps even members of the president's family, could benefit ...