Former President Donald Trump and much of the GOP have staked their 2024 electoral hopes on convincing voters that Democrats are willfully allowing violent criminals to roam the streets.
In doing that, they’ve frequently deployed the racist “Willie Horton strategy” — in essence, cherry-picking stories of gruesome crimes, particularly crimes committed by immigrants — to suggest Dems don’t care about keeping Americans safe.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump stoked violence against fellow Americans, and he’s promised to free the people involved if elected.
Getting voters to believe this, coming from Trump of all people, was always going to require that they ignore the irony. On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump stoked violence against fellow Americans, and he’s promised to free the people involved if elected. He’s not a credible voice when it comes to crime.
On Tuesday’s episode of The ReidOut, Joy spoke with Judd Legum, the reporter who broke a story on Jaime Davidson, a convicted cop-killer and drug dealer whose sentence Trump commuted on the last day of his term. Davidson, who was convicted of murder for coordinating the fatal, armed robbery of a New York undercover officer in 1990, was released by Trump, but convicted of domestic abuse earlier this year and handed a three-month sentence in July. (He’s appealing the conviction.)
Legum’s report explains the peculiar circumstances surrounding Davidson’s release:
Trump’s commutation of Davidson’s life sentence was controversial at the time because of the severity of Davidson’s offense and the atypical process that led to his release. Requests for pardons and commutations usually are handled through the Office of the Pardon Attorney. Davidson had sought the commutation of his life sentence through official channels in 2013 and 2017 and was denied both times. In the waning days of Trump’s presidency, Davidson eschewed the Office of the Pardon Attorney and sought relief directly from Trump. Davidson’s attorney Betty Schein, had deep connections to the Trump White House. Schein and her husband, Alan Futerfas, represented people associated with the Trump Organization, including Donald Trump Jr.
Davidson’s release also got support from Alice Johnson, a formerly incarcerated woman whose sentence Trump commuted after Kim Kardashian drew the Trump White House’s attention to her case.
Another person granted clemency under Trump now stands accused of a violent crime.
Jonathan Braun, a convicted drug kingpin and violent loan shark, was also released via last-minute commutation by Trump in 2021. Braun was arrested last month and is facing charges in New York over claims he assaulted his wife and father-in-law on various occasions in July and August. He pleaded not guilty and his attorney told CNBC he’d address the claims in court.
As The New York Times reported, the circumstances around Trump’s commutation of Braun were “troubling.” The move came after Braun’s family made inroads with the Trump family through their connections to Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law, Jared. And the commutation reportedly disrupted a major federal probe into predatory lending that Braun was expected to assist. According to the Times’ reporting, the younger Kushner played a “major role in the less structured vetting process” that led to Braun’s commutation.
The commutation announcement for Braun ironically mentions his plans to support the wife he’s now accused of assaulting.
Trump’s administration circumvented the normal processes to release people that are known to be violent, only for them to commit violent crimes — allegedly, in Braun’s case — yet again. This provides a window into how Trump could abuse the commutation process in the future. But unlike when such claims are lobbed at liberals, I don’t expect these stories to get wall-to-wall coverage in conservative media.
In fact, Trump’s campaign gave a rather milquetoast statement in response to Legum’s reporting, “President Trump believes anyone convicted of a crime should spend time behind bars.”
For a variety of reasons, it’s an wholly unbelievable claim.
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