Free Republic

President Donald Trump fumed about a House Democrat — who he just pardoned — choosing to remain with the party rather than defect to the Republicans. In a blistering post to Truth Social early Sunday, the president bashed Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) for announcing his intent to run for re-election as a Democrat, despite receiving a pardon from the president. Cuellar was facing charges for allegedly taking over $600,000 in foreign bribes. (The congressman’s wife, Imelda, was also charged in connection with the scheme.) “Can you imagine???” Trump wrote. “The Democrats, under the Crooked Joe Biden Administration, who always use...

President Trump has officially pardoned former Honduran President, Juan Orlando Hernández, who US officials said was at the center of one of the largest and most violent drug-trafficking conspiracies in the world. A White House official not authorized to speak on the record confirmed the pardon was granted and the Federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed his release on Monday.

President Trump announced Wednesday that he will pardon Texas Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar, who had faced federal bribery charges. Cuellar, an outspoken critic of former President Joe Biden’s border policies, was indicted last year for allegedly accepting $600,000 from Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil company and a Mexican bank in exchange for official acts.“For years, the Biden Administration weaponized the Justice System against their Political Opponents, and anyone who disagreed with them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. One of the clearest examples of this was when Crooked Joe used the FBI and DOJ to ‘take out’ a member of his own Party...

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett says he will support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s request for a pardon if it is conditioned on the premier’s retirement from politics. “In recent years, the State of Israel has been led into chaos and to the brink of a civil war that threatens the very existence of the state,” Bennett writes on X. “In order to rescue Israel from the chaos, I will support a binding arrangement that includes a respectful retirement from political life alongside the end of the trial,” he says. “That way, we can let it go, unite, and rebuild the...

WASHINGTON — President Trump hosted the annual turkey pardon at the White House Tuesday — joking that he was also re-pardoning last year’s birds that only got an “autopen” reprieve and saying he considered naming this year’s gobblers “Chuck and Nancy.” Former President Joe Biden “used an autopen for last year’s turkey pardons,” the president joked, calling them “totally invalid,” a contention he’s made of the Democrat’s late-term grants so often that an autopen portrait took the place of Biden’s picture in the White House photo gallery. “The turkeys known as Peach and Blossom last year have been located and...

President Trump on Monday pardoned a trail runner who took a brief detour on a prohibited trail while attempting to break a record running up and down the tallest peak in the Teton Range of Wyoming. Michelino Sunseri, 33, ran up and down the 13,775-foot-tall Grand Teton peak on Sept. 2, 2024, in a record-shattering 2 hours, 50 minutes, 50 seconds. On his way down, Sunseri used a shortcut to avoid casual hikers, but going off-trail in a national park is prohibited due to concerns of erosion. Sunseri was convicted of a misdemeanor in September for taking the frowned-upon cut-through....

President Donald Trump has approved a pardon for baseball legend Darryl Strawberry, according to a White House official. Strawberry is a three-time World Series champion and eight-time MLB All-Star who “served time and paid back taxes after pleading guilty to one count of tax evasion,” the official said. “Following his career, Mr. Strawberry found faith in Christianity and has been sober for over a decade — he has become active in ministry and started a recovery center which still operates today,” the White House official said. Strawberry thanked the president in a post on Instagram. “Thank you, President @realdonaldtrump for...

America’s Founders made the presidential pardon power absolute, and they did so as a protection against injustice. But Hamilton and Madison might be having second thoughts as they watch President Trump dole out pardons as a form of political legal tender. In the latest example, Mr. Trump on Wednesday pardoned crypto kingpin Changpeng Zhao, who happens to be a Trump family business partner. “I gave him a pardon at the request of a lot of very good people,” Mr. Trump said. “A lot of people say that he wasn’t guilty of anything.” One of those people wasn’t Mr. Zhao, unless...

The Trump administration excels at sowing uncertainty. But it is sending an unambiguous message to crypto entrepreneurs who may be operating on the fringes of the law, or outside of it: Don’t worry about a thing. ICYMI: President Donald Trump on Thursday issued yet another reprieve for a crypto mogul who happens to have greatly enriched the Trump family’s net worth. Changpeng Zhao, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange Binance, served a four-month prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2023 to charges related to anti-money-laundering violations. Zhao, widely known as “CZ,” was released in September 2024. After months...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has outdone herself. At a time when violent crime, illegal immigration, and public safety dominate national concerns, the governor of New York decided her top priority was granting clemency to an illegal immigrant with a manslaughter conviction. ...... Dem Governor Literally Pardoned a Convicted Killer to Protect Him from Deportation Matt Margolis | 1:15 PM on August 17, 2025 AP Photo/Hans Pennink New York Governor Kathy Hochul has outdone herself. At a time when violent crime, illegal immigration, and public safety dominate national concerns, the governor of New York decided her top priority was granting...

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky, confirmed Friday that his committee’s review of Joe Biden’s pardons so far calls into question their legality. Biden granted more acts of clemency than any other president in U.S. history.. During just one term, he gave a total of 4,245, which included 4,165 commutations of sentences and 80 pardons. By comparison, Barack Obama issued 1,927 acts of clemency over two terms, and Donald Trump issued 238 during his first term. The vast majority of Biden’s pardons came during his final two months in office.. The pardon for his son,...

The U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee, led by Republican James Comer, has launched an investigation to gather evidence that could overturn pardons granted by former President Joe Biden to prominent figures such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and former Congressman Adam Schiff. President Donald Trump has publicly backed this initiative: Biden issued these preemptive pardons on January 20, 2025, his last day in office, to shield these officials from potential investigations under the new administration. The Committee is questioning the validity of these actions, particularly due to the use of an autopen to sign nearly 1,500...

EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump is heavily weighing giving Sean “Diddy” Combs a full presidential pardon ahead of the convicted Bad Boy Records founder’s sentencing later this year. Nearly two months after Trump publicly entertained the notion of a Diddy pardon in an Oval Office gaggle, a comprehensive get out of jail card for Combs is being “seriously considered,” an administration source tells Deadline.... Even before the mixed verdict came in, Trump exclaimed on May 30 that when it came to a Diddy pardon, he “would certainly look at the facts if I think somebody was mistreated, whether they like me or...

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Sunday that Jeffrey Epstein's former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell deserves a life sentence, rejecting the idea of a potential pardon for the convicted sex trafficker. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Johnson was asked if he supported a pardon for Maxwell, but the speaker emphasized that the decision ultimately belongs to President Donald Trump. "I think 20 years was a pittance," Johnson said of Maxwell's time behind bars. "I think she should have a life sentence, at least. I mean, think of all these unspeakable crimes." "I mean it's hard to put into...

The controversy surrounding Joe Biden’s last-minute “autopen” pardons is heating up fast and furious style. What began as little whispers here and there about his mental decline and shady late-night decisions has exploded into a full-blown scandal, with evidence now piling up that reveals an autopen was used to issue sweeping pardons for high-profile political figures like Anthony Fauci, General Mark Milley, and the J6 Committee. These “preemptive pardons” raised a lot of eyebrows from the start. They were issued in the dead of night, under a cloud of suspicion, and signed not by Biden himself but by a machine....

Oversight Committee Chair James Comer has now SUBPOENAED Biden’s doctor Kevin O’Connor to testify for his role in the Biden cognitive coverup If O’Connor ignores the subpoena, he’s looking at PRISON TIME. And if he lies under oath, he’s looking at perjury charges. June 27th is the date!

Former President Joe Biden only signed one pardon by hand during his final weeks in office, and it was his most controversial one. The Justice Department is reviewing the list of people granted pardons by Biden amid new concerns about his use of an autopen to automatically sign documents and concerns about his state of mind and mental acuity in his final months in office. Biden used his final weeks as commander in chief to grant clemency and pardon more than 1,500 people in what his White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president....

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah pharmacist is upset the man who admitted to breaking into his pharmacy has been let off the hook. On May 28, President Donald Trump pardoned 25-year-old rapper NBA YoungBoy, who had been sentenced to nearly two years in jail in Utah back in December 2024. The President didn’t explain why he pardoned the rap star. NBA YoungBoy’s record includes drug fraud and weapons charges, both federally and at the state level. “My very first gut reaction to hearing that pardon was what a terrible lesson to teach your boys,” Phil Cowley, a Utah pharmacist,...

Committee investigation.. The House Oversight Committee is investigating the use of the autopen in Biden's administration. The committee is seeking interviews with four former Biden staffers and Biden's physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, to determine whether the autopen was used to sign executive orders and pardons without Biden’s knowledge. Staffer involvement.. The staffers queried were not widely known to the public but could have acted as "de facto presidents," according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who claims these individuals were instrumental in White House operations. Cognitive ability concerns.. The investigation focuses partly on Biden’s cognitive health, with Comer suggesting...

A Louisiana rapper who was convicted on gun charges is now thanking President Donald Trump for pardoning him, saying he is "giving me the opportunity to keep building -- as a man, as a father, and as an artist." NBA YoungBoy, whose real name is Kentrell Gaulden, made the statement as Trump issued a number of pardons Wednesday. Last year, Gaulden was sentenced by a federal judge in Utah after he acknowledged possessing weapons despite being a convicted felon. However, he reached an agreement that resolved Utah state charges against him and settled two sets of federal charges against him...