Posted on 03/10/2025 10:33:41 PM PDT by Libloather
President Donald Trump’s blanket pardon for the rioters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, does not cover a conspiracy by one defendant to kill the law enforcement officials who investigated him, a federal judge ruled Monday.
Edward Kelley, who was convicted of the conspiracy last year by a federal jury in Tennessee, had argued that Trump’s sweeping clemency for rioters should also cover his conviction since the agents and officers he targeted were connected to the Jan. 6 investigation.
The Trump administration had opposed Kelley’s claim, saying the conspiracy was too far removed from the Jan. 6 attack to fit into Trump’s pardon. But simultaneously, the Justice Department has sought to apply Trump’s clemency to an increasingly broad range of crimes — unconnected to the Jan. 6 attack — in courts across the country, stoking confusion and, in some cases, pushback from the courts.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan is the first to confront the Trump administration’s vacillating views about how far Trump intended to go. Varlan, a George W. Bush appointee, said the Trump administration’s “change in position” about the pardon required the courts to interpret the pardon for themselves. And in his view, Kelley’s crime was too far removed from the Jan. 6 riot to qualify.
Though Varlan’s ruling aligned with the Justice Department’s position on Kelley, it rejected the administration’s contention that courts have no role in analyzing Trump’s pardon. He noted that the Justice Department had advanced “differing positions” about the blanket pardon, which Trump issued on his first day in office and applied to more than 1,000 people who stormed the Capitol.
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Leftist judges————You’re getting on my nerves in a big way.
Pardons apply to whom the president says they apply. This judge crap is infuriating.
Very.
It’s time for Donald to start removing them from the benches and appointing far more worthy judges.
The “plot” was another FBI set up and was fake. And this judge cannot overrule a pardon.
Who brought the case and what was their standing? How did this get in front of the judge?
I fully agree.
The best example of the need to cull the herd since the Wild West.
As ClearCase_guy insightfully posted: we, the people, were “reassured,” that not only were Biden’s actions “presumed valid,” but it would be a “violation of the sanctity of the executive branch” to investigate, because his pardons are fully within the president’s official duties.
It’s kind of funny how this seems to work.
<><>we have a Democrat president diagnosed with dementia so his tax paid unelected staff do whatever they want, with no legal authority; it’s all valid, because it’s within demented Biden’s “official duties.”
<><>there’s a Republican president, winning big in a national election, fully in possession of his faculties, carrying out the will of the voters, but a judge gets to call the shots, gets to decide what is “permissible” within Trump’s Executive Branch. And so does the Supreme Court.
Attach news clips, other relevant documents, links.
Message: We, the people, were “reassured,” that not only were Biden’s actions “presumed valid,” but it would be a “violation of the sanctity of the executive branch” to investigate, because his pardons are fully within the president’s official duties.
We demand DOJ investigate Biden’s cognitive decline
and his misguided use of the presidential pardon,
Then, what about Bird’s pardon for Murder?
Conspiracy to murder a cop is a bridge too far.
Agreed.
the Justice Department has sought to apply Trump’s clemency to an increasingly broad range of crimes — unconnected to the Jan. 6 attack — in courts across the country, stoking confusion and, in some cases, pushback from the courts.
Exhibit A - Biden pardons
That opens the door to cancel all of Biden’s pardons.
Apparently the judiciary is running the Executive Branch now.
lib, the thinking in this decision (that a blanket pardon for Jan. 6th protestors does NOT cover serious crimes) could mean that were Shiffty to be prosecuted for a serious crime, his blanket pardon wouldn’t cover him.
Trump is still in office, so he can issue another pardon any time he wants to correct a judge’s misinterpretation. It’s up to him.
Pencil Neck has likely committed more felonies since the pardon expired
Has anyone read the ruling from the Judge?
I figured.
And Politico was too lazy to post it.
So here you go:
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.tned.107879/gov.uscourts.tned.107879.102.0.pdf
Re: 6 - that’s not correct.
Kelley and a co-defendant (Austin Carter) developed their plan. Then Carter was stupid enough to discuss with a co-worker. The co-worker went to the police.
And PDJT didn’t pardon Kelley:
“The Trump administration had opposed Kelley’s claim, saying the conspiracy was too far removed from the Jan. 6 attack to fit into Trump’s pardon.”
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