WASHINGTON – Reality TV stars. Former lawmakers. A sheriff. A nursing home executive. A drug kingpin. What do they have in common? They are among the Americans convicted of crimes who have received pardons from President Donald Trump since he took office in January.

And while US presidents have doled out questionable pardons in the past, Trump is doing so “in a bigger, more aggressive way with sort of no sense of shame,” said Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

“The pardon power has always been a little bit problematic because it’s this completely unconstrained power that the president has,” Roosevelt told AFP. “Most presidents have issued at least some pardons where people look at them and they say: ‘This seems to be self-serving’ or ‘This seems to be corrupt in some way.’” But Trump is doling out pardons “that look like they’re almost quid pro quo for financial donations,” Roosevelt said. Among those receiving a pardon was Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive convicted of tax crimes and whose mother attended a US$1-million-per-plate fund-raising dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in April.

Other beneficiaries of Trump pardons include reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were serving lengthy prison sentences for bank fraud and tax evasion.

Their daughter, Savannah, is a prominent Trump supporter and gave a speech at last year’s Republican National Convention. More than half a dozen former Republican lawmakers convicted of various crimes have also received pardons along with a Virginia sheriff sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking US$75 000 in bribes.

On his first day in office, Trump pardoned more than 1 500 supporters who stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 as they sought to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory. – Nampa/AFP