As soon as Donald Trump took office the second time, he pardoned nearly 1,600 people convicted or charged in association with the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the United States Capitol. Of course, presidents have long had the power to pardon people and, as John Oliver discusses in last night’s Last Week Tonight, this is not a bad thing. There are few ways to meaningfully appeal a federal conviction and pardons give the president a way to help the wrongfully convicted. And while this power has certainly been used controversially in the past—looking at you, Gerald Ford—Trump is taking the power to “a truly ridiculous degree,” as Oliver puts it.
Specific to the January 6ers, Trump has started a $1.776 billion fund for people who were “victims” of a “weaponized government.” Of course, many of the people involved with and pardoned regarding January 6 went on to commit other crimes. One of the stories Oliver highlights is that of Andrew Paul Johnson, who was later arrested on child sexual abuse charges and tried to use the money from Trump’s fund to buy the silence of one of the child victims.
But the extent of Trump’s pardons goes far beyond just those for treason. Many of these pardons are for white-collar crimes like fraud and money laundering. One case is Trevor Milton, who defrauded investors by claiming to have invented an electric truck that produced zero emissions, which produced zero emissions in the sense that it was filmed rolling down a hill without using its engine. Trump suddenly pardoned him when he was facing a four-year prison term. There are plenty of stories like this, often with Trump stepping in with a pardon when he found out that the person in question had supported his campaign, only to then turn around and claim he didn’t know who they were when pressed. “The way we’re going right now, we may well end up at a point where we don’t so much have a system of laws much as we just have a guy,” says Oliver. “And if you’re on that guy’s team, you basically get to commit crimes.” Check out the whole segment below.
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