Posted on 12/11/2022 5:33:49 PM PST by ChicagoConservative27
Former President Trump on Sunday said he turned down a deal to release former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who’s been detained by Moscow since 2018, in exchange for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout during his time in the White House.
“I turned down a deal with Russia for a one on one swap of the so-called Merchant of Death for Paul Whelan. I wouldn’t have made the deal for a hundred people in exchange for someone that has killed untold numbers of people with his arms deals,” Trump said on Truth Social.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
I’ve met some baaaaaaad dudes in the Army. Volunteering to serve doesn’t make you a saint. But I have to admit I have no idea what Whelan was convicted of in Russia, or if he did it.
They’ll use it to claim that The Big Guy *didn’t* have his lunch money stolen by Vlad and thus will make the story go away.
IIRC he was convicted of some kind of spying. IMO any Westerner who sets foot in any of the world’s rogue nations (China,Russia,North Korea,Iran,etc) is asking for trouble!
On the contrary.
Whalen was being held hostage, just like Griner. Their so-called criminal offenses are mere pretexts offered as a justification for holding them hostage.
Putin should have held out for more. Like getting Brandon to release the J6 political prisoners.
Big Chicken Dinner-—really? Didn’t know that.
If President Trump had freed the J6 prisoners, the infiltrators would not have been exposed. All would have been labeled as MAGA. How else could President Trump show the world that the F_I was behind all this?
Sioux-san is correct here. A president has wide pardon powers. (Too wide, in my opinion. But that’s for another thread.)
Trump could have pardoned anyone who might have committed any federal offense on January 6th. Trump did not have to wait for anyone to be arrested.
It’s kind of like how Ford pardoned Nixon for any federal offenses that he, Nixon, might have committed. Nixon was not under arrest when Ford issued the pardon.
It’s also worth noting that Carter pardoned all Vietnam-era draft dodgers. Carter didn’t even have to name them individually.
The Russians believe Whelan is a spy. They say he was caught with a flash drive. He said someone gave him the drive with pictures of churches. Our government says he is not a spy. If he was a spy, legally he should be locked up. I guess it boils down to which government do you think is more truthful?
The Russian arms dealer sold arms to people we think are bad guys. We sell a lot of arms overseas ourselves. I assume we use our own dealers as well. I am sure we would say we only sell arms to the good guys. If not, how are our arms dealers different from theirs? Which government, if either, only sells arms to the good guys?
It seems to me; one view of the original trade offer depends on how you answer the above questions. Given the last few years, I am not ashamed to say that I am a bit unsure.
President Trump is the Master of the Deal - case closed. This is actually a great example of when it’s better to make no deal than screw it up like Brandon.
Whelan received a BCD.
A third thing is also true - giving Bout for a civilian hostage is too lopsided.
Hostage-taking must not pay. Otherwise it encourages more of it.
>Whelan was a thief
A thief and a weirdo. He stole over $10k. He also broke into the computer system and forged a letter recommending himself to the Legion of Merit.
You are correct. I wish our side would stop with the left’s talking points already. Even today there are folks still getting arrested for Jan. 6.
That is absolutely true. If you set foot in Russia as an American, your freedom is now in their hands.
Trump pardoned Steve Bannon before Bannon had been charged.
After reading up on him, I'm not convinced that Viktor Bout was quite the evil guy we've made him out to be.
It should be noted that we contracted several shipments into Iraq through Bout in the early 00s.
Seems mostly he's guilty of pissing off the wrong people in Washington.
If Trump had pardoned “anyone who might have committed any federal offense on January 6th” that would have been foolish and would have helped the Liz Cheney lunatics. It’s not enough to be able to do something.
He’s right Viktor Bout should have never been released Biden gave him a permit to back in business many more to die.
Bloody hands Biden still on the job
I’ve studied a lot about this merchant of death and I can tell you he is vastly overrated
The biggest arms dealers are major nations
We used him to arm Jonas Savimbi
Savimbi had the right goals more or less fighting Commies but he was one ruthless mofo and that’s putting it mildly an arm chopper
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