Here are a few rhetorical questions …
Should a convicted felon be the individual who decides whether another convicted felon is pardoned?
Should a felon – who’s never spent a day in jail for his crimes – decide who gets his sentence commuted?
Donald Trump currently sits in the Oval Office. Donald Trump is also a convicted felon – in 2024, he was found guilty of 34 felony counts for falsification of business records, in an attempt to hide hush money he paid to pornographic actress Stormy Daniels.
Pardons
Trump has granted full pardons to a number of Republican lawmakers. A presidential pardon does away with the penalties that were the result of a federal conviction; however, the crime remains on a person’s record.
- Christopher Collins, former Representative for New York, December 22, 2020
- Phillip Lyman, former Representative for Utah, December 22, 2020
- Duncan Hunter, former Representative for California, December 22, 2020
- Mark Siljander, former Representative for Michigan, December 23, 2020
- Robin Hayes, former head of G.O.P for North Carolina, January 13, 2021
- Randall “Duke” Cunningham, former Representative for California, January 13, 2021
- Rick Renzi, former Representative for Arizona, January 19, 2021
- John Rowland, former Representative for Connecticut and the state’s former governor, May 28, 2025
- Michael Grimm, former Representative for New York, May 28, 2025
Commutations
During his two terms, the felon-in-chief has also decided to commute the time spent behind bars for two Republican lawmakers. A commutation lessens the sentence for the prisoner, but the conviction remains on their record.
- Steve Stockman (R-TX) , sentence commuted by Trump on December 22, 2020
- George Santos (R-NY), sentence commuted by Trump on October 17, 2025
It’s a good rule of thumb that a presidential pardon or a commutation of a person’s sentence is an unintended confession, since it tacitly reveals those laws that the president doesn’t take too seriously. At least, when members of his own political party are the ones who broke the law.
A number of those who were pardoned or who received commutations of their sentences performed some of the very political crimes that Trump claims to despise.
He has called Washington, D.C. “the swamp,” acting as if the center of U.S. democracy is good for nothing but bribery and influence peddling. Yet Trump has happily pardoned Robin Hayes, a former chairman of the G.O.P. in North Carolina.
In 2019, a federal grand jury indicted Hayes for conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud and bribery.
“Court documents claim Robin Hayes […] ran a scheme to try to bribe the state’s insurance commissioner,” stated Charlotte-based WSOC-TV, “using millions of dollars in donations meant for the Republican Party.” This scheme included the activities of Greg Lindberg, a wealthy donor who routinely bribes – ah, we mean, ‘donates to’ – both political parties.
So Trump has no problem with “the swamp.” Her even rewards those who play there. That’s not draining the swamp – that’s encouraging it.
And then there’s the political train wreck that is George Santos …
Santos is so very corrupt – perhaps even personally deluded about his own past – that his own political party largely joined the Democrats in expelling him from the U.S. House. Only six members of the House have been expelled in its entire 236-year history.
Santos is the kind of serial liar that only Donald Trump could love. Santos lied to his supports, donors and constituents about practically every aspect of his life: His background, his education, his attempts to pretend to possess a wealth and business acumen he clearly doesn’t possess.
Santos’ level of fraud is breath-taking to even the most jaded political observer. If D.C. is the swamp, Santos’ record shows he had been one of the key people making it that way.
Behind closed doors, Trump quickly gave this clearly corrupt former D.C. official a commutation of his sentence.
A cynical person might say that Trump cares so much for Santos because it takes a born liar to feel for a born liar. We at the Spark will let our readers decide that one for themselves.
Describing the litany of lies, damn lies and outright fraud that sent Santos to the slammer could fill a small book. But if our readers are interested, the Spark has provided a link to Santos’ indictment, so they may read the tale for themselves.
But remember, Santos spent his whole political career lying to and stealing from Republicans – they are the ones who primarily suffered from his lies and political shell games. So, Trump cares so little for his own supporters that he immediately pardons the guy who made the entire G.O.P. look ridiculous.
That’s a lack of respect so severe that even a handful of Trump supporters might start to take notice. Of course, they might tell themselves that every conviction of a Republican is the true crime, since they are physically incapable of making bad decisions or committing crimes. The word for such an attitude is prejudice. And prejudice is a very poor substitute for proven facts.
