President Trump Pardons Anthony Levandowski, Ex-Uber Engineer Sentenced To Prison For Stealing Trade Secrets From Google (whitehouse.gov)
- Reference: 0141294364
- News link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/21/01/20/0641238/president-trump-pardons-anthony-levandowski-ex-uber-engineer-sentenced-to-prison-for-stealing-trade-secrets-from-google
- Source link: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-012021/
"Levandowski [3]left Google in 2016 to start his own self-driving truck company, which was quickly acquired by Uber for $680 million," reports CNET. "These actions set off a chain of events that led to Google's autonomous vehicle unit, Waymo, [4]suing Uber over alleged theft of self-driving car trade secrets."
Why would this tech executive be pardoned you may ask? The Press Secretary [5]writes : "This pardon is strongly supported by James Ramsey, Peter Thiel, Miles Ehrlich, Amy Craig, Michael Ovitz, Palmer Luckey, Ryan Petersen, Ken Goldberg, Mike Jensen, Nate Schimmel, Trae Stephens, Blake Masters, and James Proud, among others..."
[1] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-012021/
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/08/04/2350207/anthony-levandowski-sentenced-to-18-months-in-prison-as-new-4-billion-lawsuit-against-uber-is-filed
[3] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/03/20/2036203/ex-uber-engineer-pleads-guilty-to-stealing-trade-secrets-from-google
[4] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/17/02/24/023234/alphabets-waymo-sues-uber-for-allegedly-stealing-self-driving-secrets
[5] https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/statement-press-secretary-regarding-executive-grants-clemency-012021/
disgrace (Score:3, Insightful)
If you had any doubts of the depths of Trumps nepotism and self serving nature you only have to look at his last acts of who he Pardoned, some truly disgraceful Pardons being handed out.
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You scratch my back, I scratch yours.
KIck Google on the way out and collect as many as possible brownie points from the anti-Google part of the valley so they use their resources to protect his ass in the next 4 years.
Pity that emoticons have not evolved enough to have an emoticon for "pinball bonus" noise. So we will have to use the ages old KERCHING!!!
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Many of the pardons were not political cronies or campaign donors or business associates. There seems to be a scattershot of pardons, maybe some just paid for the pardons and others were semi-celebrities who he pardoned just because and others perhaps he pardoned just to piss people off.
Bannon was pardoned but I believe he's not immune to civil lawsuits over his fraud. Too bad he's not in the big house, as he's the architect of modern fake news and did a lot of the whispering in Trump's ears driving his ea
Re:disgrace (Score:5, Interesting)
> he's the architect of modern fake news
1. Nope he is not. He copied most of his term paper from Vladimir Surkov: [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
2. Vladimir Surkov is not the inventor either. The fundamentals were established by a research project called BDI which became SCL - the primary NATO "public opinion adjustment contractor". The initial funding was released by the Thatcher Government in 1990 to "correct errant democracies in the Eastern Block". Further funding was provided by NATO as well as USA and UK directly: [2]https://www.fagain.co.uk/node/... [fagain.co.uk]
The Russians observed how this was done in the 1990es in Eastern Europe and copied it decade later. Bannon copied it even later after the afore mentioned SCL spun-off Cambridge Analytica to do "public opinion adjustment" in the modern age. He probably borrowed some of the Russian know-how on that too to provide a best-of-breed combination. He definitely did not invent it though - it predates him by 2+ decades.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladislav_Surkov
[2] https://www.fagain.co.uk/node/28
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> The fundamentals were established by a research project called BDI which became SCL
Your source here is pretty far into the same conspiracy nut death spiral as the Trump zealots who stormed the capitol. The irony is the things he claims influenced his own thinking directly contradict his position: "Democracy dies the day when people start voting on religious belief alone instead of ideas and policies." is used to attack efforts to promote democracy in Eastern Europe by NATO members, while seeming to have no
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My source is ME :)
I have participated in some of these events . I also know personally key figures on both sides. Up to (now ex) PM level in the countries concerned.
So take my word for it - this is exactly what was done and your Russophobic paranoia (we should really start classifying this is as open racism) has nothing to do with it.
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Fake news as a concept goes back to age of telegraph at the very least. See: Spanish-American war.
I suspect I can find even earlier examples of comparable severity, though those would be of the time when "news" were geared almost solely toward aristocracy, so unlike with aforementioned Spanish-American war, the concept of "journalism" as such didn't yet exist. Instead you had what was essentially spymasters who performed a task that was serving effectively the same ends in the age before print.
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Fake news goes back at least to the Egyptian pharaohs. Those wall paintings on the pyramids and other stuff they built were directly out of Political Propaganda 101. And it even goes back as far as cuneiform texts that have been translated, from the Tigris-Euphrates civilizations that predate the Egyptians. I also have my doubt about cave paintings showing the equivalent of modern gun-nuts showing off their spears and bragging about the size of the critter they killed.
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I think you're confusing historical propaganda/bragging with news. By definition, "news" is something that is very fresh, newly minted information. Hence comparison to things that pre-print spymasters would deal in. Outdated information is low in relevance as outdated news.
And while it's true that both fall under the broader "propaganda" umbrella, we're not talking about propaganda.
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A lot of what Bannon did was right out of the N@zi playbook, the same tactics they used to gain political power and support. Blame and fear others, then propose a radical "solution" to the made up problem, i.e. immigrants and the wall.
That's why the fascists were so happy when Trump won and dared to do things like the Unite the Right rally, and why Trump was so reluctant to condemn them and so desperate to create false equivalence with Antifa. They studied history and recognized the pattern.
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> as he's the architect of modern fake news
All news is fake news. What changed was that the Internet, specifically Social Media allowed alternate sources to be heard by the masses. Axelrod was the first to use it, but Bannon was the first to really master it.
What is scary about 2020/21, is that for the first time Big Tech is now playing the Ministry of Truth which is not going to end well. Antifa and QAnon aren't good for America, but neither is a cabal of unelected self-appointed controllers of truth.
Nepotism? Clinton pardoned his brother (Score:4, Insightful)
> If you had any doubts of the depths of Trumps nepotism and self serving nature you only have to look at his last acts of who he Pardoned
Nepotism in Trump's pardons?
That word doesn't mean what you think it does.
Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger. That's nepotism.
Re:Nepotism? Clinton pardoned his brother (Score:5, Informative)
>> If you had any doubts of the depths of Trumps nepotism and self serving nature you only have to look at his last acts of who he Pardoned
> Nepotism in Trump's pardons? That word doesn't mean what you think it does. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger. That's nepotism.
Nepotism covers both family and friends. There is a huge difference between Clinton pardoning his brother, and Trump's pardons. Clinton's brother had served his sentence a decade earlier, and the pardon cleared his record. Nepotism, but in the grand scheme of things not a big deal - he had served his time. Trump pardons allies that are under active investigation or have just been convicted - [1]Bannon [nytimes.com], [2]Flynn [bbc.com], [3]Joe Arpaio [wikipedia.org] in moves undermining the rule of law, as well as pardoning allies sabotaging the Russia investigation.And some [4]war criminals convicted of massacres [vanityfair.com] for good measure.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/20/nyregion/steve-bannon-arrested-indicted.html
[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55080923
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pardon_of_Joe_Arpaio
[4] https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/12/trump-kicks-off-pardoning-spree-by-granting-mercy-to-convicted-war-criminals
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> Nepotism covers both family and friends.
If Lil' Wayne is his friend, then maybe Trump isn't so bad.
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Lil Wayne's pardon I don't mind. 10 years over an illegal firearm charge? A white guy would have got less for murder.
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10 Years seems ridiculously excessive, but did he have any prior convictions for similar offences? Seems that US judges aren’t known to go easy on repeat offenders (unlike our own judges I might add)
Re:Nepotism? Clinton pardoned his brother (Score:4)
> 10 Years seems ridiculously excessive, but did he have any prior convictions for similar offences?
In 2007, he was arrested for smoking marijuana. They searched the tour bus and found a gun in a gym bag. The gun was registered by his manager, but Lil' Wayne was charged because, hey, whatever. It isn't clear why having a gun in a gym bag was illegal in the first place.
In 2020, he was arrested because there was a gun on a private jet that he chartered.
Would a white guy go to prison for 10 years for that?
Look, the guy broke the law and deserves, say, six months of community service. But ten years in federal prison is absurd.
I am glad that he was pardoned, but many less famous people are in prison right now for similar BS. America is badly in need of criminal justice reform.
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All about politics. He pardoned the war criminals merely because there's a staunch far right faction who feel no Americans should ever be accused of crimes in foreign countries, much less military personnel, and this was a bone tossed to that faction. The pardon seriously weakens the rule of law and logically should be anathema to any conservative; another reason that Trumpism is not the same as conservatism.
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Well, just to be fair, some of the miscreants the alleged president pardoned have a nice collection of his skeletons that he rather wishes they would not take around the block for a brisk airing. He should have pardoned his minder, Putin.
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Trump is protecting himself. People with dirt on him and facing long prison sentences are a threat.
Trump must be expecting a wave of charges and lawsuits later today when Biden takes over. These strategic pardons are aimed at protecting him from potential witnesses willing to throw him under the bus for a deal.
Picking them nits. (Score:2)
Yes, of course.
That makes the way Trump is handing out pardons a saint. Clinton from 20 years ago, who was impeached successfully, is the actual bad guy. And he still is! Nothing wrong with Trump. No sirree! Move along.
Yeah, you didn't say it. But using that kind of response because of the morally reprehensible pardons are technically not "nepotism" in the sense of favouring family members is still a red herring.
Always keep in mind that in your two party system with term limits, the 'other side' is lik
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Well, Clinton was not impeached successfully. He should have been anyway.
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Because lying about a beej is much worse than inciting a violent insurrection.
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Personally, I don't think it is worse.
But people with so much power should be held to high standards regardless of where they come from.
Hence the way I see it, if Clinton deserved to get a guilty verdict, Trump certainly does as well.
If there's no accountability even for those things, one has to wonder where the line will be drawn.
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If Trump were held to Bill Clinton's standards he'd be on his one millionth impeachment already.
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I think you need to find yourself a dictionary. Yes Clinton's is ALSO an example of nepotism.
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You're a brave man to provide even a semantic defense of Trump while he still has almost 12 Presidential hours to Trump all over everything. Also, FWIW, Jared Kushner's father Charles got a pardon on Christmas Eve; much like the Roger Clinton pardon, it comes more than a decade after the illegal conduct. Clinton's pardon was for a 1985 cocaine conviction. Charles Kushner's was for:
> a revenge plot against his brother-in-law, William Schulder, for cooperating with prosecutors in a tax evasion case against him. Charles hired a hooker to have sex with Schulder in a Jersey motel room, where a hidden camera was rolling. The elder Kushner then sent the footage to Schulder's wife, Ester, who is Charles' sister.
> The revenge plot backfired ... the Schulders gave the footage to prosecutors, who tracked down the prostitute. She eventually snitched on Charles.
These really are some of the worst people in America.
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Yes, those pardons were also disgraceful. Trump however ran under the platform of draining the swamp. This is just more proof that he was pumping in extra sludge to the swamp and lying to his voting base. Anyone who thinks Trump was different and not really a politician failed to notice that he practiced every political vice there was.
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yes I did. it is a pathetic attempt at whataboutism. Past crimes don't justify fresh ones.
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It's funny, when anyone does this for trump and the right in general, they always seem to forget the magnitude of the differences between the "sides" Trump pardoning all his reprehensible team and cronies who have active cases or sentences is somehow equivalent to Clinton pardoning their sibling AFTER serving their time. So pathetic indeed. Next up, BLM are way worse that the insurgents, etc etc. No honest debate here, the right can't prevent themselves from their nonsense.
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Why does the US president even have this power? This is an open invitation for all manner of corruption. Maybe if congress or some subcommittee would be required to endorse these pardons.
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> Why does the US president even have this power? This is an open invitation for all manner of corruption. Maybe if congress or some subcommittee would be required to endorse these pardons.
Why historically? Kings and queens had it so when the framers of the constitution were redoing it they just carried that over.
Why is it popular enough not to get deleted? The US system of justice is fundamentally completely broken. There are a load of injustices - basically, if you are rich like Donald Trump, you can get off repeatedly with good lawyers. If you are poor you can go to jail for life for stealing a pizza.
You'll notice that the Trumpkins are comparing Trumps pardons with Clinton (at this point,
Re: Clinton parsons. A-ok, he's our guy! (Score:2)
I don't think anyone of is was alright with that back then.
Because you are entirely correct. That is just as disgraceful.
Yeah, not your enemy, my friend. Stop treating us as such.
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He'll be hard pressed to beat the pardening of actual war crimes, though. Those brave American heroes of Blackwater Consulting who defended their country against dangerous unarmed Iraqi civilians.
No Qanon Shaman? (Score:4, Funny)
I guess he couldn't raise $1M.
Re: No Qanon Shaman? (Score:1)
Not sure what a pardon even goes for these days.
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2million [1]https://dissenter.substack.com... [substack.com] .
Might depend on who you are though.
[1] https://dissenter.substack.com/p/trump-bows-to-republicans-assange-snowden
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It would be nice if Biden pardoned those two on day 1, but I doubt he will.
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No chance. Trump considered it but quickly caved in when senators objected. A real caveman that guy.
Instead US lawyers filed appeal against the refusal to extradite Assange ( [1]https://www.eveningexpress.co.... [eveningexpress.co.uk] ).
They have a chance to win. If they lose there are many other ways to keep persecuting Assange and Wikileaks.
[1] https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/news/uk/us-lawyers-lodge-appeal-against-block-on-julian-assanges-extradition/
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That figure isn't included in the list.
There's some very suspicious looking pardons in there.
> "In 2016 Mr. Liberty was convicted for campaign finance violations and later was indicted for related offenses. Mr. Liberty is the father of 7 children and has been involved in numerous philanthropic efforts."
Uhuh.
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You mean the fellah in the Chewbacca bikini?
Let him remain in place so we all remember the real Russian influence.
Nope, not in jest. Russian equivalent, Shaman Gabyshev: [1]https://www.9111.ru/questions/... [9111.ru]
The difference is that the Russian equivalent after 3 attempts to exorcise Vlad and a single one month long visit to the psychiatric ward is preparing the fourth. The USA shaman will not be preparing anything - he will be sitting 25+ years for sedition. Long live the land of the free.
[1] https://www.9111.ru/questions/777777777886861/
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Welp, I see that Russian spy Maria Butina's boyfriend gets a pardon. So not a total loss for Putin. Or so they'd have us believe....
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From the pardon statement list:
> Paul Erickson – President Trump has issued a full pardon to Paul Erikson. This pardon is supported by Kellyanne Conway. Mr. Erickson’s conviction was based off the Russian collusion hoax. After finding no grounds to charge him with any crimes with respect to connections with Russia, he was charged with a minor financial crime. Although the Department of Justice sought a lesser sentence, Mr. Erickson was sentenced to 7 years’ imprisonment—nearly double the Department of Justice’s recommended maximum sentence. This pardon helps right the wrongs of what has been revealed to be perhaps the greatest witch hunt in American History.
I must say that is a remarkably spiteful statement to put out on a pardon announcement. Really doesn't leave much to the imagination as to the real motivations there.
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I would say giving someone double the recommended max sentence for a minor crime is the spiteful act here. What was the motivation behind that?
Also what the hell is a “recommended maximum” sentence? They aren’t hard limits?
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A bit of digging turns up [1]this contemporaneous report of the sentencing [argusleader.com]:
> Following that exchange, [Judge] Schreier announced that she was considering a higher sentence. She referred to the recent sentences that had been handed down to Tobias Ritesman and Tim Burns, two men prosecuted for defrauding investors in the Global Aquaponics scam in Brookings. Ritesman had been sentenced to 108 months in prison and Burns had received a 57-month sentence, and they had defrauded less money than Erickson had. The amount
[1] https://eu.argusleader.com/story/news/2020/07/06/former-political-operative-paul-erickson-maria-butina-sentencing/5383306002/
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It's also misleading. Erickson wasn't charged with a "minor financial crime", he was convicted of wire fraud and money laundering totaling $5.3 million over the last 20 years. The DoJ's recommended sentence for Erickson was 33 to 41 months, which was extremely light in view of the amount of money involved. The judge referenced two other similar fraud cases that involved less money and resulted in sentences of 108 months and 57 months. Erickson's sentence of 84 months in confinement and 36 months in super
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The Carter Page and Flynn discovery showed malicious prosecution and doctoring evidence by the prosecution or witnesses for the prosecution and concealing subpoena investigation results that cleared both of them. Internal conversations discussing continuing the investigation for the purpose of political conviction were found. Those are the two cases where the details became public. Also, threats of fabricated prosecution of family members were part of the case. The related cases appear to have been similarl
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The Russian equivalent: Who exactly has broken into the Russian White House? Russians know anyone even expected of doing that will end up dead or wishing they were. After all, daring to put yourself forwards for "election" in Russia if you aren't pro-Putin or a useful idiot is enough to get you assassinated (assuming they don't screw it up): [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poisoning_of_Alexei_Navalny
Anyone can get pardoned (Score:1)
Anyone can get pardoned, as long as they stump up with enough ca$h.
Every president has controversial pardons (Score:5, Insightful)
And the opposition always manages to find outrage somewhere, there.
The most *outrageous* scandal in all of this, to me, is the pardon of Manning without a pardon for Snowden. I see Snowden as a whitleblower that revealed clearly illegal conduct in a very *professional and deliberate* fashion to a journalist, vs. Manning's wholesale release of defense information to a black-hat hacker. There's certainly a very good argument to pardon Mainning, and I can get behind that, but it's just very inconsistent that Snowden wouldn't have received the same privilege.
Re:Every president has controversial pardons (Score:4, Insightful)
No the most controversial would have to be the murdering pieces of shit from blackwater
So you see pardoning Blackwater people more controversial than the Bush administration enabling them, and the Obama administration turning a blind eye to their activities?
Short memories (Score:3)
Americans sure so have short memories.
Whatever happened most recently, whatever is going on this month, is the worst ever or the best ever - it's YUGE!
The Manning pardon was fucked up because Manning straight up sold out our national security your security.
For abuse of pardon power it hardly holds a candle to Clinton pardoning his brother, Roger Clinton.
Then of course you have the pardons of terrorist Lopez Rivera, who actually waged war against the United States, responsible for at least 28 bombings in Chi
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Manning's *actions* weren't any different than Snowden's. The difference is how each person chose to disclose the malfeasance. Both persons had knowledge of actions that were morally and legally wrong. Both also had a *legal* obligation to report this.
The problem is that institutionally, the Army and the NSA both demand that these issues be brought to light, but at the end of the day, these demands are "corporate claptrap", and there will be repercussions for anyone who actually carries through with t
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> For abuse of pardon power it hardly holds a candle to Clinton pardoning his brother, Roger Clinton.
It is far far worse (though I also disagree with the Clinton pardon). The crime Roger was pardoned was one he had already served his time for; the most egregious of Trump's pardons are clearly nepotistic and to stop people ever facing the consequences of their actions.
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Indeed.
Though people should stop collating these two. It is questionable if Manning should have been prosecuted at all. In most other countries a person with that level of psychological issues would be denied security clearance. Similarly, if the incident happened in another country, all of her superiors and the person who issued the security clearance would have had to face a board of inquiry and/or court-martial while he/she would have been tried with a psychiatric assessment stapled to the file as exon
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Though people should stop collating these two. It is questionable if Manning should have been prosecuted at all. In most other countries a person with that level of psychological issues would be denied security clearance.
I can speak to this to some degree, because I was in the military, in a related role to Manning (I was in intelligence, but I wasn't an analyst). Understand, Manning joined the military at a young age, and at this point in your life, you don't have much of a background to investigate, p
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> I directly worked under someone who "everyone" knew was gay, and I didn't have a problem this at all.
You missed my point.
There is nothing wrong in being a STABLE gay or any other STABLE sexual preference. This is different from a person with an INSTABILITY in his/her personality regardless of is it SEXUAL or OTHER. They are a security risk.
This is what should have raised red flags and is part of the security clearance assessment in a lot of countries.
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I don't disagree with any of that -- (I think you're focusing on my comments WRT to the gay manager and not reading the rest).
Manning entered the Army at a young age, and there just isn't very much background there to investigate. High-school acquaintances generally aren't considered something worthwhile in an SSBI (Single-scope background investigation), generally the investigation used to determine eligibility for a Top Secret clearance. You can make a valid argument that juvenile acquaintances shoul
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> I think, why your high-school drama shouldn't be a factor in your future employment.
Oh, definitely, if my high school record is taken into account, I will be on a terrorist watch list for life. It's looks like the Anarchist cookbook :) We are talking purely based on her Army record.
Her military career started by ending up in the discharge unit as being mentally unfit for service. Her personality issues were on the medical record. That alone should have disqualified her from holding a security clearance for at least a few years until there is confidence that she is stable and has the psy
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Her military career started by ending up in the discharge unit as being mentally unfit for service.
That's a definite flag, but you have to understand what entering the military looks like -- (I'm assuming you haven't experienced that, as most people in the tech sector don't have a military background. And I'm making numerous assumptions, namely that you're in the tech sector and that you haven't been in the military.)
When you enter the military, (and I'm speaking from a US military perspective), you
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> And I'm making numerous assumptions, namely that you're in the tech sector and that you haven't been in the military.
Your assumptions are correct and you are probably correct looking at it from the USA side of the fence.
While I have not been in the military, I have grown up around people holding some the highest possible security clearances on the other side of the iron curtain. I am familiar with what it took to have it and to avoid having it, if you wanted to. I am looking at the whole affair from that perspective.
To put it bluntly, Manning would have been disallowed to be anywhere near the material she was given ac
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To put it bluntly, Manning would have been disallowed to be anywhere near the material she was given access to on the other side of the fence. At least in those days. She would have failed the basic psychological assessment. If not upon initial approval, upon one of the regular re-approvals. Probably today too. Ditto for heads flying along the chain of "whoever allowed it" if an incident like this ever happened.
When you go into the (US) military at a young age, you're given a lot of room to screw up, and
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At least in those days. She would have failed the basic psychological assessment. Something I should also add to this -- there isn't any type of psychological assessment to join the military. At least not in the sense of any type of standardized test. Certain specialties require this type of testing, but it's not required for general entry.
The de-facto "psychological test" is those two weeks before you being training. Manning was flagged there, but she was allowed to proceed.
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So manning is not a true whistleblower because of psychological problems, despite having good moral compass and a lot of courage, but Reality Winter who leaked an internal judgement from some analyst thinking Russia does bad things, that is whistleblowing? To me that looks a lot more like "let's set up this sting operation , give this new broad a hard time and feed the public what we want them to think."
Manning took extra jail time for refusing to cooperate against Assange. Let's see how many tough stable h
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Two wrongs make a right? What kind of absurd BS is that? Trump pardoned people just for licking his ass. Trump pardoned murderers and his supporters who were caught red handed being corrupt. This is so that if he or his son makes it to office in 2024 people would be willing to break the law for him.
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What are you talking about? Trump pardoned a bunch of very insignificant people, in the grand scheme of things that won't mean shit under the lens of history. I probably don't agree with most of those pardons, but probably none of those people personally affect me to any degree, either. The actions of Snowden and Manning, do affect me -- it affects *you*, and most of the rest of the world, because the illegal actions those whistleblowers reported on directly influence US foreign policy.
Am I going to l
Absolutely no moral fiber (Score:2)
Absolutely not one bit of moral thinking in Donnie's head. This guy. Or for example Bannon who was on trial for serious charges, it is disgusting.
Corruption (Score:2)
Trump will pardon you for anything as long as you loudly proclaim yourself a Trump follower and/or pay a large sum of money. This will encourage a lot of people to do criminal acts with impunity because they know when Trump comes back in 2024 they will all get pardons just by feigning loyalty. Anyway, I am glad Steve Bannon was pardoned, maybe he will steal even more money from xenophobic people. Haha. I am surprised more people don't feign loyalty to Trump to get all kinds of benefits. If the stupid Irani
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> ... when Trump comes back in 2024 ...
Assuming Trump doesn't get convicted in his Impeachment trial and then barred from future office and/or doesn't get barred via Section 3 of the 14th Amendment ... (the latter can be challenged in Court and/or reversed by a 2/3 vote by both houses of Congress).
Trump's talking about starting his own political party, which will stoke his ego, but is probably misguided. He believes he has 74 million followers / voters behind him, when he actually only has some (perhaps large) fraction of that. There are many
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A 2024 Trump Presidential run is impossible. He's going to be buried under so much litigation from his actions in office, (to coin a phrase) -- "It'll make your head spin!".
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Trump will rally his followers to vote for his son Don Jr. instead. He's already setting himself up to run and compared himself to Simba from the Lion King (Scar being Biden, and King Mufasa being his dad).
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> Trump will rally his followers to vote for his son Don Jr. instead. He's already setting himself up to run and compared himself to Simba from the Lion King (Scar being Biden, and King Mufasa being his dad).
I heard about that, but isn't Jr's main claim to fame simply riding his father coattails (like his other children)? It's going to take a LOT of rallying to get everyone past Jr's douchbag persona. In any case, none of his kids have Donald's "charisma".
Hopefully, however unlikely, they'll all end up wearing orange jumpsuits in an [1]island resort [wikipedia.org] off the coast of New York City. :-)
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rikers_Island
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and King Mufasa being his dad
Well, I guess the hair kinda fits.
Joe Exotic (Score:1)
Where is his pardon??
Australian media were going with "it could be real" crap..
Re: (Score:2)
I guess his check didn't clear...
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That's what happens. The limo company cashed their check before Trump got round to trying to cash his.
Ya, but ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Pardons can be a double-edged sword. Accepting one means waving your ability to plead the 5th Amendment on questions about what the pardon covers because you're no longer in peril from self-incrimination. Failing to answer could mean jail time for, well, failing to answer, contempt of court, etc... Trump pardoning the wrong person on a whim could put himself or others in his circle in jeopardy from additional questioning those people.
Probably not a factor with Anthony Levandowski's case, but the others ...?
Re: (Score:2)
Here's an article that argues that you can still plead the fifth because there are so many possible crimes that one can be indicated for that the bar is high to compel testimony. Also, there are lots of state-level crimes that a Presidential pardon does not absolve you of, so you can still plead the fifth to avoid those crimes.
The key insight I got from the article is the last sentence here:
"The Fifth Amendment is simply too important to a democratic way of life to be waved away so easily, Zelin said. It ex
Re: (Score:2)
Nice article, thanks.
Perhaps, but (most likely) only about things that may still incriminate yourself on other things that prosecutors might care about -- in those cases, you could be granted immunity for ancillary things. If the crime involved others, you cannot plead the 5th after receiving a pardon simply to protect them whereas w/o the pardon you were protecting yourself as well as the others as answering about them would have incriminated yourself. It may be narrow in places, but getting a pardon f
Who? (Score:2)
Are we meant to know those 'strongly supported by' names?
8 hours to go... (Score:2)
And [1]Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is probably sweating heavily right now [dailymail.co.uk]...
[1] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9040363/Ben-Sasse-accuses-Texas-AG-begging-pardon-Trump-lawsuit.html
Why would this tech executive be pardoned... (Score:1)
Because someone ponied up $2,000,000.
Treason, fraud, corruption, stalking... (Score:2)
...also racketeering, bribery and extortion, illegal gun possession.
Trump pardoned / commuted sentences for these things, but we're going to ignore all that and just concentrate on the one case of stealing trade secrets... WTF?
A question from an outsider (Score:2)
As someone from outside the US I have a question..
How is this presidential pardon mechanism not totally CORRUPT AS FUCK? .
It doesn't matter what the party, why is everyone OK with the president having this ability to overrule the law? Isn't one of your big things that the justice system and the political system are indepdendent?
I have similar questions about why everyone is so OK with this executive order thing, but that's a rant for another day..
Re: (Score:2)
We aren't okay with it. It's kind of like "legacy code" we haven't yet amended out.
In some ways it has a valued use. The right thing and the legal thing are not always clearly the same thing. As jurors we have jury nullification which achieves a similar outcome at a lower level. That is a jury can essentially accept that the law was broken and still not convict. I personally do not have the greatest of examples to give for why this would be acceptable but maybe something like blowing up a terrorists house o
For comparison (Score:2)
List of people granted executive clemency by Barack Obama: [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_granted_executive_clemency_by_Barack_Obama
Can people get un-pardoned? (Score:2)
Asking as a foreigner.
If a apparently sovereign king ("president") can randomly override the law and pardon people,
what stops the next one from overriding any rule that he can't simply un-pardon them?
And as for you seditionists... (Score:3)
Would you mind changing the oil while you're under there?
Re: (Score:2)
Hey, this is not Google parking lot and free oil change to employees is not part of THIS distopia.
Re: (Score:2)
> Hey, this is not Google parking lot and free oil change to employees is not part of THIS distopia.
Googlers all drive EVs, so there is no oil to change.
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> Googlers all drive EVs, so there is no oil to change.
I still remember the days when they had it. In fact, they probably do for the last remaining holdouts. It was a free service in the Chocolate Factory parking lot circa 2015. One of the many "perks" to ensure that the Umpah-Loompahs never leave the Chocolatey distopia along with free food, free laundry and god knows what else.
Re: (Score:1)
The fact is that every Biden supporter, now uses the word "seditionist" against any non Biden supporter, to impose a unique view of politics and impose a ban on critizism or doubt about the flawed election process. And the reason for that is taken from the fact that 0.0002% of Trump supporters entered the Capitol without much violence, unlike BLM parties all around USA that have wreak havoc across the cities. You'll never see a more scripted people that those who vote Democrats. And, by the way, the electio
Re: (Score:2)
"How's that swamp draining going?" Now, now, he signed an executive order limiting lobbying by former administration officials. Uh-oh, he, uh, just canceled that executive order with a new one that now allows lobbying by former administration officials. Gee, who would have guessed he'd do that now?
Re: And as for you seditionists... (Score:2)
OMG he's the Swamp Thing!