{"id":3788,"date":"2026-07-23T09:05:50","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:05:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3788"},"modified":"2026-07-23T09:05:50","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T09:05:50","slug":"trump-lays-a-paper-trail-to-his-next-great-prosecution-whistleblower","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3788","title":{"rendered":"Trump lays a paper trail to his next great prosecution: Whistleblower"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

President Donald Trump\u2019s liberal use of his pardoning power has already attracted scrutiny, and now one of his former Homeland Security officials predicts it will ultimately lead to his prosecution.<\/p>\n

Read more MAGA candidate begs voters not to investigate Trump\u2019s billionaire buddy<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs a consequence, he now holds more raw power over American industry than any recent occupant of the Oval Office and arguably any in history,\u201d Miles Taylor, who worked for President George W. Bush before serving in Trump\u2019s Homeland Security, wrote his Defiance Substack. \u201cNot because of any new authorities but because of a novel and corrupt combination of them. Together, those powers open the door to unprecedented pay-to-play schemes.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continued that \u201cthe only solace I have about the president granting what amounts to \u201csuper pardons\u201d is that he\u2019s given us a gift. When power changes hands, he\u2019s telling us exactly what to investigate. And he\u2019s left much of it in the public records.\u201d<\/p>\n

Describing Trump\u2019s aggressive use of his pardoning power as a form of \u201csuper-pardons\u201d unknown to the Constitution\u2019s drafters and the previous presidents who served under it, Taylor explained that Trump is both monetizing the ability to receive pardons and granting blanket pardons to not only individuals but entire companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe freshest example landed just days ago,\u201d Taylor wrote. \u201cRyan LaLone, a Michigan diesel shop owner convicted of tampering with emissions systems, received a presidential pardon and so did his actual business, Diesel Freak LLC. With the stroke of the pen, Trump erased a $750,000 penalty that LaLone and his company were facing, after the man became a cause c\u00e9l\u00e8bre in MAGA world for being a purported victim of Biden-era overreach (LaLone was charged with deleting controls on vehicles that were meant to stem emissions). Now both the man and the LLC have been absolved.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cIt\u2019s important to take a beat to understand how radical this is. For the 239 years since the Constitution was ratified, the pardon has typically been understood as an act of mercy for individuals. Presidents grant clemency to people who committed crimes but are seen as deserving a reprieve, whether because their sentences were unusually harsh or their convictions were unjust. The founders saw the power as a safety valve to temper the severity of the law and, on occasion, restore domestic tranquility. They didn\u2019t envision it as a magic wand to be waved over entire corporations, i.e. legal fictions that cannot sit in a jail cell, cannot be executed, and cannot, in any meaningful sense, be shown \u2018mercy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Taylor also listed Trump\u2019s pardon of cryptocurrency-linked businessman Arthur Hayes, three other former executives of the BitMEX crypto exchange \u2014 and then the entire company itself, wiping away its debt of $100 million in fines.<\/p>\n

Read more Inside Trump\u2019s new plan to overhaul your Social Security benefits<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cSince then, Trump has extended clemency to nine companies and counting,\u201d Taylor added. \u201cAs Bloomberg reports, the president has been wielding the pardon power in ways akin to a king granting favors to feudal landowners. His fortunate subjects span industries, from an auto supplier to a media startup to a crypto platform. In the process, almost $200 million in financial penalties (some of it intended for victims of wrongdoing) has been wiped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

By his analysis, \u201cThe full arsenal Trump can use for corporate forgiveness is staggering,\u201d Taylor pointed out. \u201cHe\u2019s realized he can regulate an industry or de-regulate it\u2026 he can award federal contracts or yank them away\u2026 he can open investigations or quietly close them. Wielded separately, each of these is a routine exercise of executive power. But wielded collectively and transactionally, they amount to something new: again, what I call the \u2018super pardon.\u2019 Trump has hacked together a way to make criminal liability, regulatory burdens, and competitive disadvantages all disappear for companies that he favors.\u201d<\/p>\n

In June, New York Times journalist Jonathan Swan \u2014 who, along with his colleague Maggie Haberman, co-authored a book called \u201cRegime Change\u201d about Trump\u2019s second term \u2014 reported to C-SPAN\u2019s Peter Slen that \u201cTrump is essentially beyond the reach of the law in terms of actions. Trump has told senior advisers in the Oval Office that he’s going to pardon anyone who came within 250 feet of the Oval Office. I don’t think they feel any real concern about illegality.”<\/p>\n

Meanwhile earlier in July NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe told NOTUS reporter Jasmine Wright reported that there is a literal cottage industry built around securing pardons from Trump. On one occasion rapper Boosie Badazz \u2014 a.k.a. Torence Ivy Hatch Jr. \u2014 decided to sue a lobbying firm that he claimed promised to secure a Trump pardon but ultimately failed to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201c$600,000: That’s the amount rapper Boosie Badazz reportedly paid a Washington lobbying firm to secure a presidential pardon,\u201d Rascoe told Wright. \u201cThe rapper, whose real name is Torrence Hatch, was looking to overturn a federal conviction over the unlawful possession of a firearm. But the pardon hasn’t happened. Now Hatch is reportedly looking to recover half of what he paid through arbitration. The rapper’s case represents a growing industry in Washington, D.C.: wealthy clients paying to try to secure clemency from President Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Aide tries to sell Trump\u2019s \u2018unmatched energy\u2019 \u2014 but Americans aren\u2019t buying it<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump\u2019s liberal use of his pardoning power has already attracted scrutiny, and now one of his former Homeland Security officials predicts it will ultimately lead to his prosecution.\u201cAs a consequence, he now holds more raw power over American industry than any recent occupant of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump lays a paper trail to his next great prosecution: Whistleblower - Next Address America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextaddressamerica.com\/?p=3788\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump lays a paper trail to his next great prosecution: Whistleblower - 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