WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump pardoned six people who he said were sentenced or in prison for “fixing their car”, a day before the US celebrates 250 years of independence on July 4.
Trump did not identify the people or specify their offenses. In a memorandum issued on June 29, Trump directed the Environmental Protection Agency to consider ways to make it legally less risky for people in the US to fix their own cars.
Trump has liberally used the power to wipe out convictions and end prison sentences since the first day of his second term, issuing more than 1,600 grants of clemency to date. That has inspired a wave of applications from former inmates and defendants jostling to get their cases in front of the right people at the White House.
Trump’s clemency grants have benefited allies, donors and loyalists, such as Republican politicians and white-collar defendants with impressive campaign donation records. People serving harsh sentences for drug crimes, one-time sports stars and the former president of Honduras also have been granted relief.
The bulk of Trump’s second-term grants of clemency went to more than 1,500 people charged in connection with the Jan 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol.
On the eve of national celebrations marking Independence Day, Trump said in a social post that former President Joe Biden’s administration “persecuted” the people he pardoned on July 3, saying it was part of Biden’s alleged weaponisation of government.
“I AM SETTING THEM ALL FREE, RIGHT NOW!” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. BLOOMBERG
