Trump pardons show there's never been a better time to be a white collar crook
https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/trump-pardons-bitmex-crypto-fraud
Axios · Trump pardons a bunch of white-collar crooks
#pardons
8 posts6 participants0 posts today
[The Philadelphia Inquirer]: Trump’s insane pardons are killing any faint flicker of justice in America. By Will Bunch.
Trump's pardons for big donors, political allies and even swindlers of the Sioux people have shattered any notion of justice.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/trump-pardons-archer-watson-milton-20250330.html
The Philadelphia Inquirer · Trump’s insane pardons are killing any faint flicker of justice in America
Trump’s World Liberty Financial (#WLFI) crypto grift is financially invested in #Ethena, the new project of Arthur Hayes, one of the 3 #BitMEX guys that just got pardoned.
The WLFI "investment" was made on inauguration day, at the same time World Liberty Financial invested into legendary Chinese crypto scammer Justin Sun’s token.
Justin Sun also got a pardon in the form of a having the SEC charges against him and his company dropped.
https://x.com/Cryptadamist/status/1881454530140975191
Trump just pardoned three more convicted crypto bros, the founders of #BitMEX (who did their time long ago and have been back in the crypto markets for years now).
Arthur Hayes at a minimum is still very active in the crypto markets - in fact BitMEX still exists - so I would say it's pretty safe to assume there was some kind of bribe here, possibly paid in #TrumpCoin.
In fact Trump's #WorldLibertyFinancial invested ~$5 million in Arthur Hayes's #Ethena (#ENA) on inauguration day.
#Trump said he doesn’t know #TrevorMilton but was told that the way Milton was treated by the justice system was “very unfair.”
“And they say the thing that he did wrong was he was one of the first people that supported a gentleman named Donald Trump for president,” Trump said. 
Trump also said he acted after receiving some “fantastic recommendations”about Milton.[
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#law #pardons #felon47 #fraud #Nikola #kleptocracy #broligarchy
https://apnews.com/article/nikola-trevor-milton-fraud-trump-pardon-3fcebb0a3820cecb205656f2dc3f6764
AP News · Convicted founder of electric vehicle startup Nikola pardoned by Trump
the #TrevorMilton (#Nikola Motor fraudster) pardon is not going over well with the #MAGA crypto bros, many of whom were scammed by... Trevor Milton (which should be unsurprising - these are gullible people who love trading meme stocks, AKA “the primary market for #NKLA shares”).
Tesla bros are also pissed, because Milton's whole scam was basically pretending to be Elon Musk for trucks.
"[Trevor Milton] did nothing wrong and he's a good person." - Donald Trump
"Trevor Milton donated $1.8 million to Trump and his lawyer is #PamBondi's brother." - me
video: https://x.com/AutismCapital/status/1905675677397123118
The fraudster behind Nikola Motors (the fake electric truck company that made the famous video purporting to be their flagship tractor trailer moving under electric power that turned out to be just an empty truck chassis rolling down a hill) has been pardoned by Donald Trump.
[edit] The famous "gravity powered truck" video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBCxCcICgtU&t=119s
[edit] Trevor Milton just posted a video thanking #DonaldTrump for the pardon and blasting the #SEC and #DOJ: https://x.com/nikolatrevor/status/1905412785661772107
DONALD TRUMP says he’s considering REPARATIONS for JANUARY 6 TRAITORS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZsZYJTNbYU #Trump #jan6 #Capitol #attack #rioters #pardons #compensation #crowdsize
I just can't take anymore ...
"Trump says he's looking at setting up some sort of government "compensation fund" for the January 6 criminals that he pardoned"
https://www.reddit.com/r/political_news/comments/1jk3l3o/trump_says_hes_looking_at_setting_up_some_sort_of/ #Trump #jan6 #pardons #compensation
#FOX Trump signs pardon for ex-Hunter Biden business partner
Trump signs pardon for ex-Hunter Biden business partner President Donald Trump signs a pardon for Hunter Biden's ex-business partner Devon Archer in the Oval Office. #FoxNews #trump #pardons #politics Subscribe to Fox News! Watch more Fox News Video: Watch Fox News Channel Live: FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service delivering breaking news as well as political and business news.
https://www.shibuyaworldnews.online/fox-trump-signs-pardon-for-ex-hunter-biden-business-partner/
SHIBUYA World News - SHIBUYA WORLD NEWS is an innovative news platform that delivers the latest global information in an easily understandable format, combining video and text. It provides real-time updates on worldwide events, enhancing viewers' comprehension of international affairs. · #FOX Trump signs pardon for ex-Hunter Biden business partner - SHIBUYA World Newshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vij2DUkyeA Trump signs pardon for ex-Hunter Biden business partner President Donald Trump signs a pardon for Hunter Biden's ex-business partner Devon Archer in the Oval Office. #FoxNews #trump #pardons #politics Subscribe to Fox News! https://bit.ly/2vBUvAS Watch more Fox News Video: https://ift.tt/MO8YRFs Watch Fox News Channel Live: https://ift.tt/4OziEJV FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing
Continued thread
The list of measures purpose-built to cleave off a domain in which the #law does not apply grows by the day: the #pardons that bless & invite #insurrectionary #violence; the #purges of career lawyers at the #DOJ & #SDNY, #InspectorsGeneral across the govt, & snr #FBI agents; the AG’s command that attys obey #Trump over their understanding of the #Constitution; the appointment of people such as #KashPatel & #DanBongino, who…view loyalty to Trump as more compelling than their constitutional oath;
Continued thread
#PamBondi supported #Trump’s mass #pardons for thousands of his supporters who violently ransacked the US Capitol, including some who assaulted police officers. The #FBI described those involved in the planning & perpetration of that attack as “domestic violent extremists,” whom they had previously identified in threat assessments.
[hundreds of #Jan6 insurgents were convicted of crimes, the #ProudBoys & #OathKeepers were convicted of #SeditiousConspiracy among other crimes.]
#Constitutional experts balk at #DJT #unprecedented Presidential bluster that #Biden #pardons signed by #Autopen are ‘void’ after a #TruthSocial post late Sunday night . The all caps #socialmedia outburst announcied that according to #DJT President Joe Biden’s final January 2025 pardons are moot, implying January 6th Committee members like Adam Schiff & Liz Cheney's as well as Anthony Fauci's #PresidentialPardons are invalid.
At the time of pre-pardoning his relatives #Biden stated “My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me — the worst kind of partisan politics,” he said in his last statement as president. “Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end.”
Current occupant of the #WhiteHouse says Biden’s preemptive pardons are “are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.”
According to legal scholars the executive power to retroactively revoke pardons by previous office holder has never been tried by any prior President..
https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/nationworld/report/031825_presidential_signatures/
Continued thread
All of the above then brings us to last night, when Trump attempted to declare all of former US president Joe Biden's outgoing pardons "void" based on the purported use of an autopen, and treating longstanding winger conspiracy arguments about why certain presidential orders signed by Democrats (and seemingly *only* Democrats) aren't legal because using said autopen means the president didn't officially sign them into law; a nonsensical theory that has no legitimate basis in law, and owes more to schoolyard games of Simon Says than any sort of official rule or policy.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/17/trump-biden-pardons-void
Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are ‘void’ as he used autopen
"Trump made his claim in a post to his social media platform that used his abusive nicknames for Biden and members of the House January 6 committee, writing: “The ‘Pardons; that Sleepy Joe Biden gave to the Unselect Committee of Political Thugs, and many others, are hereby declared VOID, VACANT, AND OF NO FURTHER FORCE OR EFFECT, because of the fact that they were done by Autopen.
“In other words, Joe Biden did not sign them but, more importantly, he did not know anything about them!”
I'll be honest in saying that I don't think this is a great article by The Guardian because it spends way too much time proving that Trump's autopen argument is "wrong," and that there is nothing abnormal about the president automatically producing his or her signature as part of their official duties. After all, being wrong about the law has done little to stop Trump's fascist agenda so far, and given that this is a conspiracy argument that has repeatedly been deployed by the ultra-right reactionary "fringe" of the larger Republican coalition against former US president (and Democrat) Barack Obama, a simple one paragraph debunking and a greater focus on why this conspiracy argument has resurfaced now that this same ultra-right reactionary "fringe" has become the dominant force in GOP politics, would likely have been more productive. Furthermore, the Guardian repeatedly frames this as a "claim" by Trump, when Downmarket Mussolini's Truth Social post at least, clearly indicates that the president is trying to void Biden's pardons by fiat, over social media, in a very direct sense. Legally speaking Trump doesn't have the power to do that just because he's president, and social media posts aren't legal edicts, but that just brings us back to the fact that Trump being wrong about the law and trying to rewrite it via public proclamations against his enemies, hasn't really stopped him from turning his animosities into official policies so far during his second term in office.
Given Trump's own words as reprinted here however, it is abundantly clear that he's pursuing the autopen argument to allow himself to target members of the January 6th Committee that investigated his 2021 coup attempt, which in turn ties into both Downmarket Mussolini's quest to punish officials that brought accusations or charges against him, and his efforts to seize control of the Justice Department and use it as an instrument of authoritarian vengeance for those (completely legal) activities. Here too we find the previous pattern by which the regime turns unreality into official action occurring once again; the Heritage Foundation, the same fundie fascist thinktank that wrote the Project 2025 document we can now confirm lies at the heart of Trump's fundie fascist agenda, produces a report attacking the validity of Biden's pardons and pushing the autopen conspiracy argument, Trump then immediately repeats those claims to reporters on Air Force One before saying the courts will have to decide but he thinks the pardons are "null and void," and then early the very next morning Trump attempts to literally void the pardons via fiat in a Truth Social post with no mention of courts whatsoever. At this point, all we're waiting for is the larger Trump regime to begin acting as if Der Führer's ranty argument has the force of law and the unreality cycle of transformational autocracy is complete.
Can president Trump actually get away with this scheme? I don't have the slightest idea, but the aggressiveness with which he's pushing the autopen argument, and the speed with which his larger political movement has already laid the groundwork to give it a go, strongly suggests that Trump isn't just ranting and he means to actually turn this aggrieved conspiracy bullshit into a very real attempt to persecute and neutralize his political enemies through the force of law.
The Guardian · Trump makes unsupported claim Biden pardons are ‘void’ as he used autopen
So now the guy wants to void pardons granted by his predecessor? That's going nowhere pretty.
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5330709/autopen-biden-pardon-void
Continued thread
#Trump, who specifically took aim at the #pardons granted to members of the bipartisan House cmte that investigated the #Jan6, 2021, #insurrection, offered no evidence for his claim, & there is no power in the #Constitution or case #law to undo a #pardon. But Trump’s assertion, which embraced a baseless #FarRight #ConspiracyTheory about #Biden, was a new escalation of his antidemocratic rhetoric.
#Trump wrote on social media on Sunday night that he no longer considered valid the #pardons President Joe #Biden granted to people whom Trump sees as political enemies because they were signed using an autopen — a typically uncontroversial method of affixing a presidential signature.
#ConspiracyTheories
#law #USpol #RevengePolitics
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/17/us/autopen-pardons-biden-trump.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare&sgrp=p&pvid=0BF6E9D2-8125-45F6-91B0-4ECEA9B8A46D
The New York Times · Trump Says Biden’s Pardons are ‘Void’ and ‘Vacant’ Because of Autopen
It's good, I suppose, that I can still be surprised.
I did not imagine that Trump would rule that use by Biden of an autopen would void what was signed by such devices. In this case, pardons.
This is a depraved move that sinks Trump, all Republicans, and everyone who supports, or fails to oppose, them to a low not even I expected or knew existed.