Milken was railroaded.....
....by Rudy Giuliani...
Why Milken? Was he a major GOP donor? From what I have read, he got what he deserved.
Why di he help out that turd Blago?
I’ll probably get flamed for this but I thought Blago got way too much time for the crime. I would have given him 2 years, a fine and community service.
He starts letting people like Blago out and he’s at risk of losing the support of people like me.
Wouldn’t it be a hoot if Trump said he will pardon Obama for all his crimes?
Good. Proper. Proportionate.
Milken was 100% innocent of any real crimes, BTW. And yes, I know that Giuliani is the guy who sent him to prison (Not Rudy’s finest hour). It was a miscarriage of justice when the public and the feds clamorred for SOMEONE to take the rap after the 1978 ‘junk bond’ meltdown. So they picked a guy who created a new class of securities and blamed him. It was a 100% political case helped along by a ‘witch hunt’ hysteria and the fact that no one outside the financial industry even had an understanding of what the product WAS. The Wall Street Journal ran many stories and editorials at the time about the miscarriage of justice that this was.
Blago - proper to commute. He did the crimes, and the time. His sentence was excessive.
Kerik - Don’t know much about his case, so I’ll give POTUS the benefit of the doubt on this one (I am sure he personally knows Kerik, so I am pretty comfortable that he knew what he was doing).
THAT WAS JUST A WARM-UP. MORE ‘WITCH HUNT’ PARDONS ON ‘SUPER TUESDAY’, PLEASE, Mr. President!!!!
They did much less than the current crop of Dims and RINOs.
Maybe that is where President Trump is coming from?
History of Blagojevich trials.
(From Ballotpedia)
“ Blagojevich faced more than 400 years in prison if convicted of the more than 20 corruption charges, including racketeering.[7] He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.[8]
On July 21, 2015, a federal appeals court tossed out five of Blagojevich’s 18 convictions and vacated his sentence based on an appeal by the former governor. The evidence in the case was “overwhelming,” according to the three-judge panel that issued the ruling. The prosecutors then had two options: retry the five thrown out counts or move forward to resentencing on the remaining 13 counts against Blagojevich. The prosecutors decided the latter. Blagojevich’s appellate attorney called the ruling by the appeals court “shocking” and legally “unsound”.[8]
In August 2015, Blagojevich asked the 7th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to reconsider the case and was denied. A week later, he asked the same court to delay resentencing while he and his lawyers could petition the U.S. Supreme Court. This motion was also denied, and a resentencing date was not set.[9] On March 28, 2016, the Supreme Court denied Blagojevich’s request to hear his appeal.[10]
Blagojevich’s next court date was his resentencing hearing on August 9, 2016, in which Judge Zagel decided to uphold the former Governor’s original 14-year sentence, meaning that he would not be released until 2024. In his decision, Zagel noted that Blagojevich’s actions had damaged the public’s “already taxed faith” in elected officials and that the governor’s actions had merited a 14-year sentence, despite the five dropped charges.[11] After his resentencing, Blagojevich’s next attempt at appeal, before three judges from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, was rejected on April 21, 2017.[12] On May 22, 2017, Blagojevich again requested an en banc hearing before the entire 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.[13] On June 5, 2017, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Blagojevich’s request.[14]
On November 2, 2017, Blagojevich issued another appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, asking that his sentence be revisited or overturned, contending that the earlier trials had not used the correct legal standard in delineating what spending was legal and what was illegal: “It is all too easy to cast entirely lawful interactions as having an illegal subtext, particularly when jurors may find the reality of campaign fundraising distasteful or the defendant is politically unpopular.”[15][16]
On April 16, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Blagojevich’s appeal. According to ABC 7, “The court’s refusal to hear Blagojevich’s appeal effectively puts an end to his conventional legal options.” The Supreme Court did not provide an explanation for its decision.[17][18]
On February 18, 2020, President Trump (R) commuted Blagojevich’s remaining prison sentence.[19]
Look, I support the President.
There are times like this, that I just don't understand him.
Blago is the ENEMY of everything good in America. He committed a felony. Why shouldn't he rot in prison?
Ask me about this 3 years ago and I would have completely different thoughts. But after seeing how corrupt the DOJ and FBI are, I have no problem seeing just about anyone getting clemency.
Kerik was convicted of tax fraud? Oh, so how long was Rangel and Shapton’s sentences?
Yeah, didn’t think so.
NYT - “He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him”
Trump on TV - “He seems like a very nice person, don’t know him very well.”
Blago was not the only person involved in selling Obama’s senate seat. He was the only one sent to prison for the shenanigans of that time.
I wonder if any of these people will wind up on a Trump campaign commercial like the one run during the Super Bowl?