Latest news with #MAGA
Mint
an hour ago
- Politics
- Mint
‘DEPORT XI JINPING'S DAUGHTER!': MAGA amid US visa crackdown on Chinese students
American far-right MAGA activist Laura Loomer called for the deportation of Chinese President Xi Jinping's daughter following US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement that the United States will begin 'aggressively' revoking visas of Chinese students. US President Donald Trump's administration has intensified efforts to deport people and revoke student visas as part of its broader hardline immigration agenda. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a post on X, 'The U.S. will begin revoking visas of Chinese students, including those with connections to the Chinese Communist Party or studying in critical fields.' In a statement, Rubio added that the State Department will revise visa criteria to impose stricter scrutiny on all future applications from China and Hong Kong. Replying to this, Loomer said, 'LET'S GO! DEPORT XI JINPING'S DAUGHTER! She lives in Massachusetts and went to Harvard! Sources tell me PLA guards from the CCP provide her with private security on US soil in Massachusetts!' China's Foreign Ministry previously pledged to 'firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests' of its students abroad, in response to the Trump administration's decision to revoke Harvard University's authority to enroll foreign students—a move that would significantly impact Chinese nationals studying there. (This is a breaking news)
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
‘No MAGA left behind': Trump's pardons get even more political
As President Donald Trump's interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin was remarkably blunt about intermingling Trump's political goals with the ostensibly independent actions of the Justice Department. That might have cost him the permanent gig. So leave it to Martin, now Trump's pardon attorney, to say the quiet part out loud about Trump's pardons. 'No MAGA left behind,' Martin posted Monday on X. Martin's missive came after Trump pardoned a MAGA-supporting former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who had been convicted of bribery. Martin's further posts suggested this pardon wasn't about rewarding a Trump ally, per se – a more problematic proposition – but rather about correcting what Trump allies argue was a weaponized Biden administration prosecution. However, if you look closely at how Trump's used his pardon power – which he has exercised dramatically this week, with a slew of new pardons and commutations on Wednesday alone – it's virtually impossible to miss the political overtones. Many of Trump's acts of clemency have rewarded an ally or someone tied to an ally, or they have served a clear and not terribly subtle political purpose. Politics have loomed over other controversial and high-profile pardons – from Andrew Jackson's, to Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon, to Bill Clinton pardoning Marc Rich, to Joe Biden pardoning his own son. (Biden in his closing days also preemptively pardoned other family members and Trump critics who hadn't been accused or convicted of crimes, because Trump and his allies had suggested they could be targeted.) But Trump took things up a level by pardoning a spate of key convicted allies in his first term, often without the kind of extensive process usually used in pardons. And his second term continues to push the envelope. The big one, of course, was the blanket pardoning of virtually all January 6, 2021, defendants – about 1,500 people in total. These were people who quite literally rose up on Trump's behalf and in some cases assaulted police. Trump pardoned nearly all of them even as polling later showed 83% of Americans opposed his pardons for those convicted of violent crimes. There has been more where that came from this week. On Monday, Trump pardoned the MAGA-supporting former sheriff. Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison (during the Trump administration) for offering local businessmen positions as auxiliary deputy sheriffs in return for campaign contributions. On Tuesday, Trump made a splash when he spared reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley lengthy prison sentences for bank fraud after their daughter campaigned extensively for Trump in 2024. Campaign assistance appears to be a common denominator for some Trump pardons. The New York Times reported on Tuesday, for example, that Trump's April pardon of convicted nursing home executive Paul Walczak came after Walczak's mother raised millions for Trump and other Republicans, sought to publicize the diary of Biden's daughter, and attended a $1-million-per-person fundraising dinner last month. Walczak even cited his mother's pro-Trump political activity in his pardon application. And on Wednesday, as Martin took to social media again to proclaim it 'pardon day,' Trump granted clemency to even more individuals, including pardoning former GOP Rep. Michael Grimm of New York. That means Trump has now pardoned no fewer than eight convicted former GOP members of Congress, between his first and second terms. Earlier in the day, Trump suggested that next in line for pardons could be two men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. ('It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job,' Trump said.) Beyond the pardons mentioned above, Trump has also pardoned or granted clemency to: Former Republican Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted on two separate occasions in recent decades Mark Bashaw, an officer who formerly served at the Army Public Health Center and was found guilty of violating the Biden administration's military Covid safety rules by a court martial Trevor Milton, who with his wife gave Trump's reelection effort $1.8 million just a month before the 2024 election and had been represented by lawyers with ties to Trump Ross Ulbricht, whom Trump had pledged to pardon during the 2024 campaign as an appeal to potential libertarian supporters Two key witnesses in the Biden impeachment inquiry (Devon Archer and Jason Galanis) Brian Kelsey, a Republican former state senator from Tennessee Ex-Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has supported Trump and called himself a 'Trumpocrat' Former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore, a Republican who some have labeled 'Lady Trump' About two dozen people convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics In case the politics of that last one weren't clear enough, Trump announced the pardons just a day before he addressed the anti-abortion-rights 'March for Life' in January. Indeed, you have to strain pretty hard to find Trump pardons or grants of clemency that don't have some kind of political element. Trump in March pardoned three cryptocurrency figures who don't have an obvious political connection to him. But he's also made inroads – both political and personal – into the crypto world, and has pushed for deregulation. He pardoned two DC police officers convicted in a deadly pursuit, and he did so with at least some support from D.C.'s police chief and Democratic mayor. But he also suggested the police had been targeted 'because they went after an illegal' – suggesting the decision was linked to his harsh anti-illegal immigration efforts. Jean Pinkard might be Trump's most normal-sounding act of clemency, given she was sentenced to just one year in prison and has battled cancer. But even there, she was represented by a lawyer who prominently pushed Trump's baseless claims of a stolen 2020 election. Trump on Wednesday also made several pardons and commutations with no immediately apparent political nexus. For instance, he commuted the sentence of former Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover, just months after Biden pardoned Hoover's second-in-command. Regardless of intent, the pattern of Trump's pardons is pretty clear. They're heavily focused on people who support Trump or have ties to him, those who targeted people Trump also doesn't like, and instances where the pardons could send messages to key constituencies. And there's no sign it's going to slow down any time soon – especially where Martin is involved.
Boston Globe
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Trump pardons Julie and Todd Chrisley, reality TV stars convicted in 2022 of fraud and tax evasion
'My parents have not spoken to each other, heard each others' voices or seen each other in the past 2 ½ years,' said Savannah Chrisley, who wore a bubble gum pink MAGA hat and matching 'Women for Trump' jacket. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Julie Chrisley, right, and her husband Todd Chrisley posed for photos at the 2017 Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas. Jordan Strauss/Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Advertisement The Chrisleys' TV show portrayed them as a tight-knit family with an extravagant lifestyle. Prosecutors at the couple's 2022 trial said they spent lavishly on expensive cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel after taking out fraudulent bank loans worth millions of dollars and hiding their earnings from tax authorities. Trump Advertisement Savannah Chrisley has been a vocal Trump supporter and endorsed his candidacy in a speech at the Republican National Convention last summer. Though she has complained that the case against her parents was politically motivated, they were indicted in 2019 under a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, Byung J. 'BJay' Pak. Regardless, Savannah Chrisley said officials in the Trump administration who reviewed her parents' case had 'seen the corruption.' She told reporters that the president delivered the news of the pardons himself, calling unexpectedly while she was at the grocery store. 'I didn't have to do anything other than stand firm in my beliefs and my convictions and fight for my parents,' she said. She paused to take photos with fans and supporters gathered outside the prison before getting into a vehicle that took her past its security checkpoint. The Chrisleys' attorney, Alex Little, said Tuesday that the pardon 'corrects a deep injustice' in which the couple were 'targeted because of their conservative values and high profile.' Before she was pardoned, Julie Chrisley, 52, had been scheduled for release in January 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, while Todd Chrisley, 56, was to remain behind bars until September 2032. Prosecutors said at trial that the Chrisleys had not yet become TV stars when they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans. New loans were taken out to pay off the old ones, according to prosecutors, until Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans. The defense argued that an IRS officer gave false testimony during the trial and that prosecutors lacked evidence to support convictions. Advertisement A panel of judges of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Chrisleys' convictions last year. Waiting to meet her father, Savannah Chrisley said her family was making plans to do a lot of catching up. 'We're going to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, Christmases, all the things,' she said, 'because we're going to make up for the lost time.' This story has been corrected to show that Todd Chrisley's age is 56, not 57. Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia.
CNN
4 hours ago
- Business
- CNN
‘No MAGA left behind': Trump's pardons get even more political
As President Donald Trump's interim US attorney for the District of Columbia, Ed Martin was remarkably blunt about intermingling Trump's political goals with the ostensibly independent actions of the Justice Department. That might have cost him the permanent gig. So leave it to Martin, now Trump's pardon attorney, to say the quiet part out loud about Trump's pardons. 'No MAGA left behind,' Martin posted Monday on X. Martin's missive came after Trump pardoned a MAGA-supporting former Virginia sheriff, Scott Jenkins, who had been convicted of bribery. Martin's further posts suggested this pardon wasn't about rewarding a Trump ally, per se – a more problematic proposition – but rather about correcting what Trump allies argue was a weaponized Biden administration prosecution. However, if you look closely at how Trump's used his pardon power – which he has exercised dramatically this week, with a slew of new pardons and commutations on Wednesday alone – it's virtually impossible to miss the political overtones. Many of Trump's acts of clemency have rewarded an ally or someone tied to an ally, or they have served a clear and not terribly subtle political purpose. Politics have loomed over other controversial and high-profile pardons – from Andrew Jackson's, to Gerald Ford pardoning Richard Nixon, to Bill Clinton pardoning Marc Rich, to Joe Biden pardoning his own son. (Biden in his closing days also preemptively pardoned other family members and Trump critics who hadn't been accused or convicted of crimes, because Trump and his allies had suggested they could be targeted.) But Trump took things up a level by pardoning a spate of key convicted allies in his first term, often without the kind of extensive process usually used in pardons. And his second term continues to push the envelope. The big one, of course, was the blanket pardoning of virtually all January 6, 2021, defendants – about 1,500 people in total. These were people who quite literally rose up on Trump's behalf and in some cases assaulted police. Trump pardoned nearly all of them even as polling later showed 83% of Americans opposed his pardons for those convicted of violent crimes. There has been more where that came from this week. On Monday, Trump pardoned the MAGA-supporting former sheriff. Jenkins was sentenced to 10 years in prison (during the Trump administration) for offering local businessmen positions as auxiliary deputy sheriffs in return for campaign contributions. On Tuesday, Trump made a splash when he spared reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley lengthy prison sentences for bank fraud after their daughter campaigned extensively for Trump in 2024. Campaign assistance appears to be a common denominator for some Trump pardons. The New York Times reported on Tuesday, for example, that Trump's April pardon of convicted nursing home executive Paul Walczak came after Walczak's mother raised millions for Trump and other Republicans, sought to publicize the diary of Biden's daughter, and attended a $1-million-per-person fundraising dinner last month. Walczak even cited his mother's pro-Trump political activity in his pardon application. And on Wednesday, as Martin took to social media again to proclaim it 'pardon day,' Trump granted clemency to even more individuals, including pardoning former GOP Rep. Michael Grimm of New York. That means Trump has now pardoned no fewer than eight convicted former GOP members of Congress, between his first and second terms. Earlier in the day, Trump suggested that next in line for pardons could be two men convicted of conspiring to kidnap Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. ('It looked to me like somewhat of a railroad job,' Trump said.) Beyond the pardons mentioned above, Trump has also pardoned or granted clemency to: Former Republican Connecticut Gov. John Rowland, who was convicted on two separate occasions in recent decades Mark Bashaw, an officer who formerly served at the Army Public Health Center and was found guilty of violating the Biden administration's military Covid safety rules by a court martial Trevor Milton, who with his wife gave Trump's reelection effort $1.8 million just a month before the 2024 election and had been represented by lawyers with ties to Trump Ross Ulbricht, whom Trump had pledged to pardon during the 2024 campaign as an appeal to potential libertarian supporters Two key witnesses in the Biden impeachment inquiry (Devon Archer and Jason Galanis) Brian Kelsey, a Republican former state senator from Tennessee Ex-Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who has supported Trump and called himself a 'Trumpocrat' Former Las Vegas City Councilwoman Michele Fiore, a Republican who some have labeled 'Lady Trump' About two dozen people convicted of blocking access to abortion clinics In case the politics of that last one weren't clear enough, Trump announced the pardons just a day before he addressed the anti-abortion-rights 'March for Life' in January. Indeed, you have to strain pretty hard to find Trump pardons or grants of clemency that don't have some kind of political element. Trump in March pardoned three cryptocurrency figures who don't have an obvious political connection to him. But he's also made inroads – both political and personal – into the crypto world, and has pushed for deregulation. He pardoned two DC police officers convicted in a deadly pursuit, and he did so with at least some support from D.C.'s police chief and Democratic mayor. But he also suggested the police had been targeted 'because they went after an illegal' – suggesting the decision was linked to his harsh anti-illegal immigration efforts. Jean Pinkard might be Trump's most normal-sounding act of clemency, given she was sentenced to just one year in prison and has battled cancer. But even there, she was represented by a lawyer who prominently pushed Trump's baseless claims of a stolen 2020 election. Trump on Wednesday also made several pardons and commutations with no immediately apparent political nexus. For instance, he commuted the sentence of former Gangster Disciples co-founder Larry Hoover, just months after Biden pardoned Hoover's second-in-command. Regardless of intent, the pattern of Trump's pardons is pretty clear. They're heavily focused on people who support Trump or have ties to him, those who targeted people Trump also doesn't like, and instances where the pardons could send messages to key constituencies. And there's no sign it's going to slow down any time soon – especially where Martin is involved.
Mint
4 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Todd Chrisley released from prison after Trump pardons reality TV star
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — Reality TV star Todd Chrisley was released Wednesday from federal prison after being pardoned by President Donald Trump, a spokesperson for his defense lawyer said. The 57-year-old Chrisley, best known for the TV series 'Chrisley Knows Best,' was freed from a minimum-security prison camp in Pensacola, Florida, where he was imprisoned after being convicted three years ago of bank fraud and tax evasion. His wife and TV co-star, 52-year-old Julie Chrisley, also was pardoned by Trump. It was not immediately known when she would be released from a prison facility in Lexington, Kentucky. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP's earlier story follows below. PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump signed pardons Wednesday for reality TV stars Julie and Todd Chrisley, who were been serving federal prison sentences after being convicted three years ago of bank fraud and tax evasion. Trump's pardons paved the way for the couple best known for the TV series 'Chrisley Knows Best' to be freed from prison. In the evening their daughter, Savannah Chrisley, stood outside the minimum security prison camp where her father was being held in Pensacola awaiting his release. She said her brother, Grayson, was picking up their mother in Lexington, Kentucky. 'We just want to get home. We want to be reunited,' she said, wearing a bubble gum pink MAGA hat and matching 'Women for Trump' jacket. Chrisley added: 'My parents have not spoken to each other, heard each others' voices or seen each other in the past 2 ½ years.' The Chrisleys' TV show portrayed them as a tight-knit family with an extravagant lifestyle. Prosecutors at the couple's 2022 trial said they spent lavishly on expensive cars, designer clothes, real estate and travel after taking out fraudulent bank loans worth millions of dollars and hiding their earnings from tax authorities. Trump announced his intention to pardon them on Tuesday, saying the celebrity couple had been 'given a pretty harsh treatment based on what I'm hearing.' It was another example of the president, himself a former reality TV star, pardoning high-profile friends, supporters, donors and former staffers. Savannah Chrisley has been a vocal Trump supporter and endorsed his candidacy in a speech at the Republican National Convention last summer. Though she has complained that the case against her parents was politically motivated, they were indicted in 2019 under a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, Byung J. 'BJay' Pak. Regardless, Savannah Chrisley said officials in the Trump administration who reviewed her parents' case had 'seen the corruption.' She told reporters that the president delivered the news of the pardons himself, calling unexpectedly while she was at the grocery store. 'I didn't have to do anything other than stand firm in my beliefs and my convictions and fight for my parents,' she said. She paused to take photos with fans and supporters gathered outside the prison before getting into a vehicle that took her past its security checkpoint. The Chrisleys' attorney, Alex Little, said Tuesday that the pardon 'corrects a deep injustice' in which the couple were 'targeted because of their conservative values and high profile.' Before she was pardoned, Julie Chrisley, 52, had been scheduled for release in January 2028, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website, while Todd Chrisley, 56, was to remain behind bars until September 2032. Prosecutors said at trial that the Chrisleys had not yet become TV stars when they and a former business partner submitted false documents to banks in the Atlanta area to obtain fraudulent loans. New loans were taken out to pay off the old ones, according to prosecutors, until Todd Chrisley filed for bankruptcy, walking away from more than $20 million in unpaid loans. The defense argued that an IRS officer gave false testimony during the trial and that prosecutors lacked evidence to support convictions. A panel of judges of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the Chrisleys' convictions last year. Waiting to meet her father, Savannah Chrisley said her family was making plans to do a lot of catching up. 'We're going to celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, Christmases, all the things,' she said, 'because we're going to make up for the lost time.' Bynum reported from Savannah, Georgia. This story has been corrected to show that Todd Chrisley's age is 56, not 57.
