Another day, another remarkable batch of clemency grants from Prez Trump

As reported in this CNN piece, “President Donald Trump used his pardon power to grant clemency to a wave of individuals this week who had been convicted of crimes that range from public corruption, guns and even maritime-related offenses, according to multiple officials.”  The CNN piece provides the most detailed account of the 25+ people who today got pardons and commutations that I have seen in press accounts, though the piece does not have a complete list (or related details).  Here are excerpts just to provide a flavor of Trump’s work today:

One notable name was Michael Grimm, the former New York congressman who served seven months in prison for tax evasion a decade ago, according to a White House official….

According to officials, other pardons included: Former Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland, who was convicted twice in federal criminal cases. Kentrell Gaulden, the rapper who goes by NBA YoungBoy and was convicted in a federal gun crimes case…. Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati City Council member who was sentenced to 16 months in prison…  Jeremy Hutchinson, a former Arkansas state senator who was sentenced to 46 months in prison for accepting bribes and tax fraud….

Trump also on Wednesday commuted the sentences of nine individuals, a White House official said, including Larry Hoover, the notorious co-founder of Chicago’s Gangster Disciples street gang. He was serving six life prison sentences in the federal supermax facility in Florence, Colorado, following a 1997 conviction on dozens of charges that included running a criminal enterprise from jail.

Hoover is also serving a sentence of up to 200 years on state murder charges in Illinois, which are not impacted by Trump’s action on Wednesday. His advocates have pushed Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker to commute that sentence as well….

The sentences of Lawrence Duran, Michael Harris, Marian Morgan, Garnett Smith, Edward and Joe Sotelo, Anabel Valenzuela and Imaad Zuberi were also commuted.

Zuberi is an American venture capitalist who donated $900,000 to Trump’s first inaugural committee and was also a longtime Democratic donor on fundraising committees for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. He was sentenced in 2021 to 12 years in prison for falsifying records to conceal his work as a foreign agent while lobbying high-level US government officials and obstructing a federal investigation involving the inaugural fund….

Trump is expected to issue even more commutations in the coming days. Trump’s newly minted pardon attorney Ed Martin reviewed dozens of commutation applications last week for Trump to review, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Remarkable times.