How Trump is easing pressure on the US prison system by becoming judge and jury and dispensing favours

President Donald Trump confirmed earlier this week he is considering a “Full Pardon” for former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about contacts with a Russia diplomat.

A judge last month indefinitely postponed sentencing  when Flynn pressed to withdraw the guilty plea he entered more than two years ago in a case prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller.

According to Politico:

A new set of defense attorneys retained by Flynn last year has been aggressively challenging the case against him — an uphill task given that Flynn publicly admitted his guilt under oath at a court hearing in December 2017 and reconfirmed those statements a year later at another court session.

In his guilty plea, Flynn admitted lying to FBI agents about his dealings with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and making false statements about Trump transition officials’ lobbying on a United Nations resolution condemning Israel.

Flynn also acknowledged that he signed Foreign Agent Registration Act filings that contained false statements about his work on a lobbying and advocacy project related to Turkey.

Last month, Flynn formally asked to withdraw his plea, arguing that prosecutors and the FBI double-crossed him and that his former attorneys failed to give him adequate legal advice about potential defenses in his case.

Trump has long suggested he is considering a pardon for Flynn and other aides embroiled  in investigations of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

He has become well practised at over-riding the courts.

Last month he granted clemency to 11 individuals, using his presidential pardon power to political advantage in many highly politically sensitive cases.

CNN reported:

 The White House did not provide evidence of a detailed pardon process conducted through the Justice Department, and the President did not explain his decisions at length.

 But Trump called one of the sentences “ridiculous” and said he relied on recommendations from others to make the decisions.

The 11 individuals favoured by the President included convicted white-collar criminals and the former Illinois governor accused of attempting to sell a US senate seat.

A CNN commentator observed: 

President Donald Trump just appointed himself America’s judge and jury, casting even deeper doubts on whether the nation’s impartial justice system can withstand his expanding political assault.

“I’m actually, I guess, the chief law enforcement officer of the country,” Trump said Tuesday, after setting off alarm bells with a flurry of pardons and commutations.

 And:

The President’s relish in unveiling a new set of clemency decisions in highly sensitive political cases — days after his meddling in the Roger Stone sentencing recommendations — is only exacerbating a Justice Department credibility crisis. That is especially the case since his presidency has unfolded in a whirl of scandal, legal showdowns and questionable constitutional power grabs that are hardly conducive to good governance and respect for the impartiality of the Justice Department.

 His controversial interventions in the justice system included the pardoning of junk bond entrepreneur Michael Milken, convicted of conspiracy to hide stocks and tax fraud.

The moves were the latest examples of Trump’s willingness to use his pardon power — that many Presidents only fully utilize on the way out of the Oval Office door — to political advantage in the middle of his administration.

Tuesday’s developments were also a fresh indication that he is intensifying his attacks on institutions that challenge his power, with the courts becoming an increasingly frequent target.

And:

The White House did not provide evidence of a detailed pardon process conducted through the Justice Department, and the President did not explain his decisions at length other than to describe the prosecutions as “unfair” and sentences very tough.

His willingness to intervene in highly charged political cases threatened to obliterate the invisible wall erected between the White House and the Justice Department since the Watergate era — explicitly designed to avoid suspicions of such interference.

In 2017, Trump pardoned former Arizona sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio who was convicted of criminal contempt over his harsh immigration policies.

He also pardoned I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the chief of staff to former Vice President Dick Cheney who was convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in a case over the leaking of a former CIA officer’s identity.

The President’s flurry of pardon s last month were made two days before Stone was  due to be sentenced and a few days after the Justice Department reversed recommendations for how long he should spend in jail following Trump’s angry complaints.