{"id":108200,"date":"2025-02-11T17:02:52","date_gmt":"2025-02-12T01:02:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/11\/donald-trump-reaches-across-the-aisle-in-most-dystopian-way-possible\/"},"modified":"2025-02-11T17:02:52","modified_gmt":"2025-02-12T01:02:52","slug":"donald-trump-reaches-across-the-aisle-in-most-dystopian-way-possible","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/11\/donald-trump-reaches-across-the-aisle-in-most-dystopian-way-possible\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Trump Reaches Across The Aisle In Most Dystopian Way Possible"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump began his second term in office with mass pardons for everyone convicted of January 6th offenses \u2014 yes, even the violent ones. The move reeks of naked partisanism, as those who would literally take to the streets in defense of Leader Trump were rewarded for the fealty.<\/p>\n

But Trump is now using the extraordinary power of the executive in a superficial nonpartisan, but still decidedly corrupt ways. <\/p>\n

Yesterday, Trump issued a full pardon for former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blago was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama\u2019s senate seat after he won the 2008 presidential election amongst other crimes, as reported by<\/a> NBC News:<\/p>\n

\n

Blagojevich was convicted in 2009 of lying to an FBI agent. Jurors\u00a0deadlocked\u00a0on other counts. At his 2011 retrial, he was found guilty on all counts, after government recordings revealed his attempts to sell Obama\u2019s seat. He was also convicted of shaking down a children\u2019s hospital executive for campaign contributions and holding up a bill involving the horse-racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

NBC helpfully follows this up with a particularly relevant tidbit: \u201cIn between the trials, he was a contestant on Trump\u2019s reality TV show \u2018The Celebrity Apprentice\u2019 in 2010.\u201d Ahhhh, there you have it.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s first term as president, he commuted Blagojevich\u2019s sentence \u2014 after watching<\/a> the disgraced former governor\u2019s wife on TV talking smack about his enemies (Robert Muller and James Comey) while she pleaded for her husband\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the only victory yesterday for Democrats accused of being on the take.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Department of Justice<\/a> directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to drop their case against <\/a>New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was to face trial in April on charges of conspiracy, bribery, and solicitation of foreign campaign contributions. But Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed the dismissal of the case \u201cwithout assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,\u201d because Adams needs to \u201cdevote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, let\u2019s not forget the time and effort<\/a> Adams spent being<\/a> a sycophant, and blessing Trump\u2019s agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

These moves are a victory for the twin pillars of the Trump administration \u2014 corruption and obsequiousness. And a blow for justice.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Donald Trump Reaches Across The Aisle In Most Dystopian Way Possible<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Donald Trump began his second term in office with mass pardons for everyone convicted of January 6th offenses \u2014 yes, even the violent ones. The move reeks of naked partisanism, as those who would literally take to the streets in defense of Leader Trump were rewarded for the fealty.<\/p>\n

But Trump is now using the extraordinary power of the executive in a superficial nonpartisan, but still decidedly corrupt ways. <\/p>\n

Yesterday, Trump issued a full pardon for former Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Blago was convicted of trying to sell Barack Obama\u2019s senate seat after he won the 2008 presidential election amongst other crimes, as reported by<\/a> NBC News:<\/p>\n

\n

Blagojevich was convicted in 2009 of lying to an FBI agent. Jurors\u00a0deadlocked\u00a0on other counts. At his 2011 retrial, he was found guilty on all counts, after government recordings revealed his attempts to sell Obama\u2019s seat. He was also convicted of shaking down a children\u2019s hospital executive for campaign contributions and holding up a bill involving the horse-racing industry in exchange for campaign contributions.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

NBC helpfully follows this up with a particularly relevant tidbit: \u201cIn between the trials, he was a contestant on Trump\u2019s reality TV show \u2018The Celebrity Apprentice\u2019 in 2010.\u201d Ahhhh, there you have it.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s first term as president, he commuted Blagojevich\u2019s sentence \u2014 after watching<\/a> the disgraced former governor\u2019s wife on TV talking smack about his enemies (Robert Muller and James Comey) while she pleaded for her husband\u2019s release.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not the only victory yesterday for Democrats accused of being on the take.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s Department of Justice<\/a> directed prosecutors in the Southern District of New York to drop their case against <\/a>New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Adams was to face trial in April on charges of conspiracy, bribery, and solicitation of foreign campaign contributions. But Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove directed the dismissal of the case \u201cwithout assessing the strength of the evidence or the legal theories on which the case is based,\u201d because Adams needs to \u201cdevote full attention and resources to the illegal immigration and violent crime that escalated under the policies of the prior administration.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, of course, let\u2019s not forget the time and effort<\/a> Adams spent being<\/a> a sycophant, and blessing Trump\u2019s agenda<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These moves are a victory for the twin pillars of the Trump administration \u2014 corruption and obsequiousness. And a blow for justice.<\/p>\n

\"KathrynKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Photo by Drew Angerer\/Getty Images) Donald Trump began his second term in office with mass pardons for everyone convicted of January 6th offenses \u2014 yes, even the violent ones. The move reeks of naked partisanism, as those who would literally take to the streets in defense of Leader Trump were rewarded for the fealty. But […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":108201,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-300x275-tl2hD3.jpeg?fit=300%2C275&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}