Jan 27

2025

Trump sets the table for lawlessness

The president's use of pardons during his first week in office went well beyond the traitorous January 6 insurrectionists and encourages violent behavior by his supporters.

I expected Trump’s first week in office to be terrible. It was worse than terrible, in so many ways. 

I want to focus on Trump’s use of pardons. It wasn’t just those given to the January 6 insurrectionists. 

Consider:

  • Trump also pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who was serving a life sentence for running a website used to sell drugs in what the FBI called “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the internet.” Trump called the prosecutors who put Ulbricht in jail “scum.”
  • The president also gave pardons to two white Washington, D.C., cops responsible for the death of a Black man and lying about it. Trump, in issuing the pardons, described the victim as an “illegal” – he was an American citizen – and a “rough criminal” even though he had no adult criminal record.
  • Trump also pardoned 10 anti-abortion activists who blocked access to a clinic in 2020, in violation of federal law, injuring a nurse and accosting a woman experiencing labor pains. Anti-abortionists are clamoring for more pardons.

It’s apparent that Trump will use his power of pardon to hold harmless convicted criminals whose actions he agrees with or serve his political purposes. He has emboldened militia members who probably think there will be no legal consequences if they act out violently. (The Proud Boys are already speaking openly of extracting revenge.) Of course, the Supreme Court last year ruled Trump has legal immunity if he commits  crimes in his role as president.

Folks, we are in uncharted and dangerous waters. 


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Last week I listed a dozen reliable news outlets that are worth following in these troubled times. I asked readers to suggest others.

Here’s the best of them:

  • Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for The Atlantic, a Pulitzer Prize winner and author of books on authoritarianism and the Soviet Union. (Last week I listed The Atlantic; it has since launched a newsletter, Trump’s Return.)
  • Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. He does his homework. Start with this piece
  • Will Branch, the no-holds-barred national columnist for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
  • Mother Jones, the investigative magazine that prides itself for “Smart, Fearless Journalism,” and David Corn, its Washington bureau chief.
  • The Bulwark, a center-right news and opinion website whose ranks include Bill Kristol and other refugees from The Weekly Standard. (They’re not Trump fans.) 
  • Heather Cox Richardson, a history professor at Boston College, author of seven books on politics and history and a self-described “Lincoln Republican.” She puts  current events in the context of American history.
  • Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize winning economist and former columnist for The New York Times. Worth reading for his analysis of the American economy under Trump.
  • Americans For Tax Fairness, worth following to get a perspective on Trump’s coming changes to the tax code. Check out their post on the corporations that have enjoyed the biggest tax cuts under Trump’s previous revisions to the tax code.
  • The Cornerstone of Democracy, a roundup of news and commentary from Dan Gilmore.
  • Associated Press Fact Check, which is going to be awfully busy over the next four years.
  • The Marshall Project, focused on criminal justice, and its weekly newsletter, Closing Argument.

Some other interesting sites were recommended, but I don’t want to overwhelm readers – any more than I have, anyway. Thanks to all who shared.


Enough with Trump. But not politics. Ken Kruly, in his Politics and Other Stuff, runs down which local and state politicians have how much money in their campaign coffers.


A couple of noteworthy stories from The Buffalo News: The city’s changing bar culture and City Hall’s lack of transparency involving urban improvement funds provided by Erie County.


An influential state senator has identified $3 billion in subsidies New York should ditch, many of them benefiting the rich. Do people buying thoroughbred race horses really need a tax break?


Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposed budget doesn’t increase funding to localities to repair and maintain roads and bridges, WKBW, News 7 reports. A fair amount are in sorry shape.



Two from New York Focus: A lobbyist close to state Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie constantly breaks the law, and Trump’s opposition to wind power could derail New York’s clean energy plans


The writing is on the wall for broadcast television. Writes Wired: “The slow fade of broadcast television—one of the few remaining free sources of news and entertainment—is about to accelerate.”


The New York Times magazine chronicled Adrian Wojnarowski’s decision to leave ESPN, which paid him $7.3 million a year, for a gig with the St. Bonaventure basketball program that pays $75,000.


RIP, Garth Hudson. Here’s my favorite tune from his band, The Band, which also inspired the headline on one of Investigative Post’s most impactful stories. 

Investigative Post