US Politics

Do you mean the Toyota Corolla?

That surprises me not one bit - every time I travel to an offbeat country, that car is pretty much ubiquitous. Drove one around Iraq for a couple of weeks (it seemed to be the only car you could hire), and in the Afghan mountains, you see nothing but NGO 4x4s and Corollas. Well, you mostly see nothing, but those are the only vehicles you occasionally see

Bill Barr putting out statement the Justice Dept couldn’t find any fraud that would change the election results is not going down well in Trumpland

Sounds interesting. Can you say what industry you’re in or would you rather not?

Wasn't there for work, just mooching around on holidays.

I imagine it's something to do with distancing himself and saving his own skin at this stage...

Especially after this bombshell overnight: https://www.npr.org/2020/12/01/940960089/justice-department-investigating-possible-bribery-for-pardon-scheme?t=1606892643781

I'm guessing it's either Flynn or maybe Ghislaine Maxwell who's involved given the timing.

Spicy.

Hoping Maxwell - if that came out it could derail his plan to hand out get out of jail free cards to every criminal he knows (i.e. everyone he knows).

Prosecutors investigating pardons for cash scheme at WH. We should start selling our political analyses or something, we’re on a roll.

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN28C00H

I wonder if prosecutors are investigating reposts too ;)

Really hoping this one sticks. Would be good to see him leaving the white house ass first

Preemptive presidential pardons, how is this even a thing?!?

Dang, two posts before, and I remember reading it earlier. I throw myself on the mercy of lufcourt.

i'll pardon you for a £5

Instructions unclear, sent £5 to the FBI ‘for dicki’s pardon’.

Pardon me?

I'll do it for £4.50

I have the best pardons. The very best. My pardons are so good people pay double. Seriously.

$10 to you, as a special favour.

Surely any journalist worth their salt should be asking what they've done that needs pardoned?

Fuck me how do these amateur hour dickheads think you can do properly criminal stuff like this openly over email?

That's why they have their own email servers...

The pre-emptiveness is because they've not admited to a prior crime yet rather than that they're being pardoned for a crime they're about to commit a crime - is that correct?

Would there have to be an invesigation / confession at some point regardless to make sure they've been pardoned for the right crime? It's all really odd; real death-throes of a regime kind of feel.

I wonder if prosecutors are investigating reposts too ;)

LOL

lufcourt.

DONE

But how would this work with Maxwell ? Can he pardon someone who is merely a suspect? That sounds to me like interfering in an investigation, which I am pretty sure he cannot do.
I would think the prosecutors are quite deliberately delaying the court case to make sure he is out of office by the time she is sentenced.

CNN updating that Trump has also been discussing pardons for the whole Trump family, Kushner and Rudy

On the pardons for cash - he's pardoned a lot of folk (as every president does) - not all the pardons get the headlines.

List here - rich folk getting pardoned for various levels of dodgy dealing seem like the likely subjects. Not sure Flynn would be in this camp - Trump had a reason to pardon him without payment.

Paul Pogue sticks out a bit.

Pogue, the founder and executive of McKinney, Texas-based construction
company Pogue Construction, pleaded guilty in 2010 for under-reporting
his taxable income in 2004, 2005 and 2006, failing to pay more
than $400,000 taxes owed. In 2019, Pogue's son Ben Pogue and
daughter-in-law Ashleigh Pogue gave a total of $238,541 to Trump
Victory, a vehicle for Trump's reelection campaign. Former
Republican Senator Rick Santorum was a leading advocate for Pogue's
pardon; Paul Pogue had been a contributor to Santorum's presidential
election bid.