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Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

331–340 of 996 posts

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#331
post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's one of the checks and balances On the judicial, so it would be great if it was also subject to Congressional approval. It would still fulfill its purpose.

As much as I disagree with some pardons, I think the negative effects of looping in Congress would outweigh the positive. Sometimes pardons are politically unpopular even when they are right or justly merciful. Pardoning someone who embarrassed the government, for instance -- I can easily imagine a majority of Congress choosing to deny Chelsea Manning's commutation. It's a bit of a parallel to the "better a hundred g…

The pardon and its exercise are yet another reason to be sure that the person you're sending in to the job will exercise the power responsibly.

I agree that there should be no check on the power to pardon. There can't be because Congress does have the power to convict in some rare cases. The check is on the legislative as well as on the judicial branch.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#332
post #142
post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Getting photographed smiling next to two notorious white supremacists is already fishy. The picture was taken after the sign became a notorious rallying sign for racists. Do you really think that Luckey is aloof to the point of not not knowing what he's doing there? If you borrowed Occam's razor, you may need to sharpen it a bit before using it.

The "ok sign is a white power symbol" thing started as trolling on 4chan. It doesn't mean anything apart from being useful to infuriate other people. You're being trolled.

I agree that a bunch of people from 4chan spreading misinformation online could be considered trolling. Taking it into the real world is a step I have a hard time believing. What would the troll's logic be? "I'm going to make all these suckers think I'm a racist"? That seems like an unusual step from anonymous online activity.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#334

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

> It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions.

But aren't prosecutions done by the DoJ, as part of the executive branch, i.e. the decision to prosecute someone at all, or whether to offer a plea deal is already under the president's control?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Peter Thiel is a white nationalist? Interesting.

At least 75 million people are now white nationalists according to lefties. They're even coming up with new terms. Terms like "multiracial whiteness" to fit the new narrative. Who knows how many lists I'm on now.

I’m confused by the term “nationalist”. Does it imply violence? I’ve heard also “separatist”. Is that more benign?

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As much as I disagree with some pardons, I think the negative effects of looping in Congress would outweigh the positive. Sometimes pardons are politically unpopular even when they are right or justly merciful. Pardoning someone who embarrassed the government, for instance -- I can easily imagine a majority of Congress choosing to deny Chelsea Manning's commutation. It's a bit of a parallel to the "better a hundred g…

What if the president pardoned literally... everybody. I wonder what would happen. Maybe he got drunk and wrote something down and handed it to somebody. It's such a simple action, nobody can stop it, he can't take it back when he comes to his senses. Would the system even respond to it? Would they just open all the federal prisons?

A blanket pardon, unbounded pardon, issued without a backing legal theory would amount to overruling both the justice branch and the legislative branch.

District Attorneys, the FBI and other agency's responsible for prosecuting crimes report to the President as part of the executive. Each has broad discretionary power on which crimes they prosecute, what sentence they seek, and what deals get cut. The president having some authority to wave crimes goes along with this ( and also short-circuits the president manipulating law enforcement for their own purposes ).

If the president one day decided that he didn't want the executive branch to enforce the law and pardoned everyone... well they'd be impeached quickly, and the supreme court would almost certainly rule that the president doesn't have the power to pardon everyone. Assuredly an injunction would be issued to block the pardon coming into force.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#338
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Levandowski but not Snowden or Assange. Sigh. Snowden and Assange have no value in the market economy. Lewandowski, on the other side, has some interesting skills

Will investors put money on him again? Or is he relegated to working on trump’s personal Twitter replacement kind of projects now? Have a feeling this is the only thing he can do now, go deep maga and suck up to the cult

He has been working on Pronto.ai for the last few years. Nothing will change there.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not true -- double jeopardy applies to the same jurisdiction. You can certainly be charged in state and federal court for the same crime.

Actually, you are correct. https://www.wklaw.com/double-jeopardy-federal/ Of course, there's still the limitation that the State would need to find it's own law that the accused violated - they have no jurisdiction over Federal law (and vice-versa). Still... it doesn't sit quite right with me. If someone is acquitted by a jury in, let's say, Rhode Island for murder. It doesn't seem right that the Federal government c…

And for that matter, even if acquitted in a criminal trial, someone can be found guilty in a civil trial (with a lower standard of evidence). See, famously, OJ Simpson.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#340

It's important to note the reason the President has the power to pardon anyone for any reason is it's one of the checks and balances, the Constitution is full of them. It's meant as a check to blunt overzealous prosecutions. Note that the President does not have the corresponding power to convict anyone. An interesting set of pardons was when Andrew Johnson pardoned all the rebels in the Confederacy, including Jeffer…

As a foreigner Presidential pardons + the appointment (and life terms) of Supreme Court judges baffle me. How can a country that claims to be a leader in democracy have these two wildly abused bugs?

Edit: fixed use of election instead of appointment

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