President Donald Trump on Wednesday pardoned over two dozen people, including longtime confidant Roger Stone, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in-law.
Trump previously commuted Stone’s sentence in July of this year but offered a full pardon to Stone, citing his age and health conditions. Manafort, who was sentenced to 47 months last year on fraud and tax charges, was also offered a full pardon.
The White House alleged “prosecutorial overreach” in Manafort’s case and “potential political bias” in Stone’s jury trial.
On Tuesday, Trump pardoned more than a dozen people, including former campaign adviser George Papadopoulos, who was sentenced to 14 days in a federal lockup and one year of supervised release in September 2018 for lying to investigators in connection with special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.
Former GOP congressmen Duncan Hunter and Chris Collins also made the president’s list on Tuesday, both men being among the first Republicans to back Trump for the presidency.
Hunter was set to begin an 11-month federal prison sentence in January for one count of misusing campaign funds. Collins was sentenced to 26 months after he pleaded guilty last year to conspiring to commit securities fraud and making false statements to the FBI. Both men were given full pardons.
