December 17, 2024
As Joe Biden’s disastrous tenure in the White House nears its end, he has apparently taken something to stimulate his penchant for preferring law breakers to the citizens he has sworn to protect.
He demonstrated his preference for law breakers with his dangerous and foolish policy on border security, which has seen thousands of deaths of Americans through fentanyl illegally brought in, and from violent criminals among the millions of illegal aliens who were allowed in.
And now he’s issued 39 pardons and granted clemency to nearly 1,500 convicted criminals, in what the White House said was “the largest single-day grant of clemency in modern history.” The list includes drug traffickers, crack dealers, cartel leaders and fraudsters, according to court records, and also includes some high-profile criminals.
In announcing this move, Biden said, “I am also commuting the sentences of nearly 1,500 people who are serving long prison sentences — many of whom would receive lower sentences if charged under today’s laws, policies, and practices. These commutation recipients, who were placed on home confinement during the COVID pandemic, have successfully reintegrated into their families and communities and have shown that they deserve a second chance.”
Several of them were involved in crimes affecting thousands of Americans. And the reactions to these actions by people affected by the crimes of some of these people are anything but supportive.
One beneficiary was Rita Crundwell, who as comptroller of Dixon, Illinois, stole $53.7 million from residents of the city over a 20-year period, beginning in 1990. For this she was sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in prison in 2013.
Crundwell blamed the lack of city funds caused by her criminal behavior on the economy and the state of Illinois for failing to adequately fund the city.
In response to this sentence commutation former Dixon Mayor Li Arellano, Jr. said, “I am very disappointed … angry. Are we really going through this again?”
And city Councilman Mike Venier noted that “It was really just another gut punch to the city of Dixon.”
Another commutation raised the ire of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro. Addressing the commuting of the sentence of former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan, Shapiro said that Biden “got it absolutely wrong.”
Interestingly, this criticism was given in Biden’s childhood hometown of Scranton, and in a building on Biden Street.
Conahan was found guilty in 2011 of collecting millions of dollars in kickbacks for sending children to prison in private, for-profit jails. This criminal exploit became known as “kids-for-cash.”
Shapiro, a Democrat, added, “Governors and presidents have unique power to grant pardons and clemency and commute sentences. … It is an absolute power that should be used incredibly carefully.” He concluded his remarks by saying, “I do feel strongly that President Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in northeastern Pennsylvania.”
A drug smuggler was also among the lucky ones. Francesk Shkambi, received a sentence of 27 years in prison for heading a criminal organization that smuggled drugs from Albania into the United States.
Specifically, Shkambi trafficked large quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and Ecstasy into the US. The Federal Bureau of Prisons said he was due to be released in 2029.
There are many other examples of similar circumstances where the criminal acts of those receiving clemency did significant harm to the citizenry. The only people apparently concerned with this are the citizens, not the President.
Before this move, Biden gave his son Hunter a full, unconditional pardon, breaking his previous promises not to use the extraordinary powers of the presidency for the benefit of his family members.
The pardon occurred about a month before Hunter was set to face sentencing, and clears him in both of his federal cases of three felony charges for purchasing and possession of a gun in 2018, violating a law by concealing drug use, and for which he was found guilty. He avoided a trial on nine federal tax charges by entering a guilty plea. The pardon also covers years prior to the times Hunter was charged with a crime, going all the way back to 2014.
After breaking his promise, Biden attempted to defend the move by blaming politics. “No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” he said.
“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” Biden said. “Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room — with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process.”
So, political activists use the law against their opponents? Didn’t Donald Trump say something about that?
Many of the things attributed to Biden of late have been suspected of being planned by others in the administration, citing his recent mental decline. Regardless of who is making these decisions, they are clearly not using the best of thoughtful reasoning, and not protecting the interests of the American people.
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