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paul manafort
'Our Carceral System Laid Bare': Trump Pardons Cronies Stone and Manafort as DOJ Proceeds With Lame-Duck Execution Spree
"Trump is pardoning his political allies while he's executing people on death row at an unprecedented rate. His deeds are unconscionable."
Dec 23, 2020
Throwing the deeply unequal nature of the U.S. criminal justice system into sharp relief, President Donald Trump late Wednesday issued another wave of pardons for his wealthy political and personal allies as his administration continues its unprecedented lame-duck spree of executions--a punishment almost exclusively reserved for the poor and marginalized.
Just 24 hours after issuing full pardons or commutations for two Republican loyalists, four former Blackwater mercenaries jailed for massacring Iraqi civilians, a Medicare fraudster, and others, Trump rolled out an additional list of pardons that includes longtime adviser Roger Stone, former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner, a wealthy New Jersey real estate developer and father of the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
"A flow of pardons for the wealthy and corrupt, yet Brandon Bernard was left to die when his own jurors and prosecutor begged for mercy."
--Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
"A flow of pardons for the wealthy and corrupt, yet Brandon Bernard was left to die when his own jurors and prosecutor begged for mercy," Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said late Wednesday, referring to the 40-year-old Black man the Trump Justice Department killed earlier this month for a crime he committed at the age of 18. "Our carceral system laid bare for the world to see."
Rep.-elect Cori Bush (D-Mo.) tweeted that the combination of Trump's wave of pardons for the well-connected and last-minute rush of executions amounts to "mercy for the rich and state-sanctioned murder for the poor."
"Trump is pardoning his political allies while he's executing people on death row at an unprecedented rate," said Bush. "His deeds are unconscionable."
According to the Pew Research Center, the outgoing president "has used his clemency power less often than any president in modern history," and many of his "clemency recipients have had a 'personal or political connection to the president.'"
"The only modern president who granted clemency almost as infrequently as Trump is George H.W. Bush, who granted 77 pardons and commutations in his single term," the research outfit noted. "Trump has granted clemency to less than half of 1% of the more than 10,000 people who petitioned him for it through the end of the 2020 fiscal year (which ended Sept. 30), according to the Justice Department."
\u201cTomorrow marks 28 years since George H.W. Bush pardoned six defendants as part of the Iran-Contra cover up, one of whom, confessed criminal Elliott Abrams, was brought back into government by George W. Bush, and now serves as Trump\u2019s Iran/Venezuela envoy. Corruption is the rule.\u201d— Matt Duss (@Matt Duss) 1608777851
Kyle Herrig, president of watchdog group Accountable.US, said in a statement Wednesday that the president's lame-duck pardons "are just the latest example of Trump's longstanding pattern of promoting cronyism and corruption in his administration at all costs."
"As millions of Americans are suffering and afraid of losing their homes and livelihoods, all Trump has time for is handing out political favors to his friends and allies," said Herrig. "There's little more we can expect from a president who has held ethics in low regard and ignored the struggles of everyday Americans for his entire four-year term."
The Trump administration's execution spree, meanwhile, appears on track to continue as the Justice Department--which resumed federal executions in July after a 17-year hiatus--aims to execute three additional people before President-elect Joe Biden, an opponent of the death penalty, takes office next month.
Attorneys representing the three federal inmates set to be executed--Corey Johnson, Dustin John Higgs, and Lisa Montgomery--have asked Trump to commute their sentences to life without parole. Johnson and Higgs have both tested positive for the coronavirus as it sweeps through the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana.
In a letter (pdf) on Monday, a group of Democratic senators and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) demanded that the Justice Department inspector general investigate the Trump administration's execution spree, which the lawmakers described as "a break with both modern history and decades-old practice."
"The federal government had not executed a federal prisoner since 2003 and had only executed three people in the previous 50 years," the senators wrote. "The executions that have already taken place since November 3, 2020, and those scheduled to occur in January 2021, are 'the first executions under a lame-duck president in over 100 years.'"
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!['Manafort Released. But [Insert Name] Still Locked Up': Special Treatment for Trump Crony Denounced](https://www.commondreams.org/media-library/former-trump-campaign-manager-paul-manafort-r-arrives-at-the-albert-v-bryan-u-s-courthouse-for-an-arraignment-hearing-as-a-p.jpg?id=32144882&width=1245&height=700&quality=90&coordinates=67%2C0%2C0%2C0)
'Manafort Released. But [Insert Name] Still Locked Up': Special Treatment for Trump Crony Denounced
"I'm not upset Paul Manafort was released," said one criminal justice reform advocate. "As always, I'm upset that people who aren't rich, white, & connected (nearly everyone of the millions currently caged) aren't treated with the same care, consideration, or humanity."
May 13, 2020
The release of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort from prison Wednesday morning spurred immediate denunciations of the unequal treatment of prisoners in the U.S. criminal justice system in which the wealthy and well-connected are spared while millions of others are forced to face the spreading coronavirus pandemic with little or no hope of release.
As the Daily Beastreports:
Manafort has been serving out his seven-and-a-half year sentence at FCI Loretto in central Pennsylvania on charges related to Special Sounsel Robert Mueller's investigation. He was found guilty of tax fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced in March 2019. He wasn't due to be released from prison until November 2024.
At the age of 71, Manafort is considered to be at particular risk from the disease, which hits harder among older people. His lawyer, Kevin Downing, requested Manafort's early release from prison due to coronavirus-related health fears last month, saying that he'd been suffering health problems including high blood pressure, liver disease, and respiratory issues for years.
But whether Manafort was "at particular risk," was an issue of debate for some.
Law professor and MSNBC contributor Joyce Vance was among those asserting that Manafort's premature release "raises real fairness concerns," especially as hundreds of thousands of other prisoners in the U.S--including those with arguably much more dire circumstances--have not been released.
"Manafort doesn't qualify for compassionate release," Vance tweeted. "Did he get special treatment ahead of others who do? People in facilities with outbreaks or closer to the end of their sentence? Did Trump's friend get preferential treatment under the guise of appropriate releases to protect BOP inmates? Releases make sense but there must be a process based on objective criteria. Michael Cohen, much closer to the end of his sentence, was denied release after news he would be was made public."
In addition to the perception that Manafort was the clear recipient of special treatment due to his political connections to Trump, the larger issue for many remained the glaring example of inequality endemic to the U.S. criminal justice system.
\u201cThinking about Tiffany Mofield who died of Covid-19 in a New Jersey prison and many who are in jails and prisons around the country who remain in danger. | Paul Manafort granted home confinement due to coronavirus fears - The Washington Post https://t.co/3Y3hkvYdZj\u201d— Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (@Eddie S. Glaude Jr.) 1589374822
Referenced by Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. of Princeton University, Tiffany Mofield was a 43-year-old woman who died of coronavirus complications in a New Jersey prison on April 29. As reporting by The Intercept's Alice Speri details, "Mofield's death underscores the devastating impact the coronavirus is having as it spreads through prisons and jails, where the health of incarcerated people was often neglected before the current crisis."
In a thread on Twitter posted in response to Wednesday's developments, defense attorney and prison reform advocate Scott Hechinger detailed the cases of many inmates who--unlike Manafort--continued to languish in prison even as the virus threatens.
\u201cManafort released. But Yusef still locked up. He's served 25 years. Been in since he was 16. He's 41 now. Should have been resentenced 5 years ago. Lost 4 friends already to COVID, now running rampant in Michigan prisons. Highest death toll in country. Why is he still in prison?\u201d— Scott Hechinger (@Scott Hechinger) 1589377427
Listing the names of individual inmates--including Anthony Swain, Sue Farrell, Charles Hobbs, Jody Hill, and Andrew Pete--Hechinger wrote: "I'm not upset Paul Manafort was released. As always, I'm upset that people who aren't rich, white, & connected (nearly everyone of the millions currently caged) aren't treated with the same care, consideration, or humanity."
With no nationwide urgency showed by prison officials or lawmakers for the release of most inmates, despire the growing risks to them, Hechinger said the Manafort case only highlights deep and grave injustices that have long existed.
"Right now, imagine how scared you are about contracting this virus. The precautions you take," he wrote. "Then think about how, right now, millions are trapped in close quarters. No ability to distance. To protect themselves. People are terrified and upset. And we should be too."
Since the Covid-19 pandemic touched off earlier this year, criminal justice reform advocates have been raising the alarm over just how vulnerable prison and jail populations are to the spread of the virus.
"This peril is immediate and pressing," wrote veteran civil rights leader Jesse Jackson in an op-ed in March. "There are 2.2 million Americans locked up at any one time, but over 11 million go through prison or jail gates in any one year."
Writing on the subject again last month, Jackson warned that "if the pandemic continues to spread through prisons, the toll in lives will soar."
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Calling Solitary Confinement 'Government Torture,' Ocasio-Cortez Says 'Release Everyone'
In tweet commenting on upcoming "protective custody" of Paul Manafort, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez says prison sentences don't provide license to commit "human rights violations"
Jun 05, 2019
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Wednesday reiterated her stance that solitary confinement is a violation of human rights and "government torture" and called for all people--including President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort, should he be subjected to it--to be spared from such an abusive detention practice.
The comments began in morning tweet in which the New York Democrat responded to a New York Times tweet that said that Manafort, who's currently serving a federal sentence in Pennsylvania, would soon be heading to Rikers Island, "where he is likely to face solitary confinement." Ocasio-Cortez's 14th congressional district contains the notorious Rikers Island.
"A prison sentence is not a license for gov torture and human rights violations," Ocasio-Cortez wrote. "That's what solitary confinement is."
\u201cPaul Manafort is being sent to solitary confinement in my district - Rikers Island.\n\nA prison sentence is not a license for gov torture and human rights violations. That\u2018s what solitary confinement is.\n\nManafort should be released, along with all people being held in solitary.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1559743774
Manafort, the Times reported, "is expected to be transferred within the next few weeks to the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City, where he will most likely be held in isolation while facing state [mortgage] fraud charges." On the island, he would likely be housed in a former prison hospital; inmates there don't spend their day locked in cells, the reporting noted.
NBC Newsreported following Ocasio-Cortez's tweet, citing the New York City Department of Corrections, that "Manafort may be held in isolation for protective reasons, but that would not carry the same conditions as being held in solitary confinement, which is a punitive designation."
In follow-up tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said it was the Times's wording on social media--"where he is likely to face solitary confinement"--that triggered her first comment, and that the "protective custody" Manafort faces doesn't necessarily preclude solitary confinement.
But, Ocasio-Cortez added: "If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too."
\u201cYes - released from solitary.\n\nNYT used the term solitary confinement, & that\u2019s what I am commenting on.\n\n\u201cProtective custody\u201d IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.\u201d— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) 1559743774
It's not the first time this year Ocasio-Cortez called for banning solitary confinement.
In April, she commented on the solitary that U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning was subjected to, most recently for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions.
"Solitary confinement is torture," Ocasio-Cortez said at the time. "Chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing, she should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the U.S."
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