Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

441–450 of 996 posts

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#441

Post by mywittyname »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #400
knuthsat wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that all a POTUS does after presidency is enrich oneself, it's quite clear where the motives are. The moment when POTUS is unable to profit off of his presidency is the moment where these things wouldn't happen. POTUS becoming a multimillionaire after presidency is just a sad display of moral corruption. Edit: Not talking about Trump, just in general about POTUS. It's my impression that in the last 50 years…

He was very clear about this goal even before his campaign in 2016. In 2000 Donald Trump told Fortune magazine, “It’s very possible that I could be the first presidential candidate to run and make money on it.”

Thankfully, he end up being the first presidential candidate bankrupted by the position. The dude's primary asset, his brand, is not completely toxic and can no longer be used to prop up his other failed ventures. And the only bankers wiling to finance him will the the predatory ones, who will all extract every penny left then leave him with nothing.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#443

Post by akarma »

noelsusman wrote: post #390
JeremyNT wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to "both sides" this too much, because I do feel like there's a new, special level of corruption and self-dealing on display with this administration, but it's not uncommon for these guys to use pardons for personal gain or the benefits of their friends. For a little context and flavor, remember that Clinton pardoned some real winners on his last day too, including some guy who paid $200k to Hillary Clinton's bro…

If you're going to both sides this you should at least mention Clinton's most corrupt pardon (Marc Rich). I would say that it is uncommon for presidents to abuse the pardon power like this, it's just not completely unheard of. It's also worth noting that Trump multiplied the total number of corrupt presidential pardons in US history by something like 10 in his time in office. The scale is hard to fully grasp.

As of November 2020, Trump utilized both pardons and clemencies much less than any president in modern history according to Pew Research [1][2].

He granted clemency to 143 more last night which places him closer in line to Bush and G.W. Bush, but there's no way your data here would include that (and that still places him at a very low number), so I'm wondering where you're getting this data, and how you qualify "corrupt."

If we look at a handful of Bill Clinton's corrupt pardons on his last day in office alone as mentioned in the gp comment above:

(1) Susan McDougal who went to jail for contempt of court for him, (2) Braswell who paid Hillary $200k for the pardon, (3) his brother Roger Clinton Jr, (4) Democrat Mel Reynolds who was granted clemency after being found guilty of sexual abuse of a minor.

Thus, Trump must have had at least 40? Where is the source?

[1] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/11/24/so-far-trum... [2] https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/FT_20...

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#444

Post by cronix »

Bakary wrote: post #382

I have to say there is quite a lot to learn from Levandowski.[0] I am not a fan of corruption but it's undeniable that he played whatever cards he had in life and played them hard. He'll probably be a shadowy billionaire quite soon. One quote stood out to me at the very end of the article: “The only thing that matters is the future,” he told me after the civil trial was settled. “I don’t even know why we study histor…

In order to understand why things are the way they are, we first need to understand how they came to be.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#445

Post by vmception »

WalterBright wrote: post #111

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 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

Is it though?

I went to school in America, I know what they teach and elevate as sacrosanct.

The developed world laughs at our "checks and balances".

This last term, the judiciary was the only "check and balance" left and it did its job, but it didn't have to.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#446

Post by johannes1234321 »

r00fus wrote: post #406
johannes1234321 wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding judges: How would you appoint them? Basically there are three options: - Have a public vote, direct legitimation (or via some extra electoral college or something) this means that judges have to be "popular" and run campaigns and question is, if that's really smart ... - Have the "juristical class" elect within, so judges from lower courts would lick somebody, or current judges elect additional ones. That w…

Lifetime appointments are the problem not the method of appointment.

Yes, they are an issue. The idea is to make them independent from future career things etc. and the rule is from a time where people didn't get as old as these days. This makes them independent from the politics of the day.

I think Germany got that better: here we have a 12 year term (thus a single government can't easily swap them out - a learning from the time of 1933) and a max age of 68 (for whatever reason that was picked)

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#447

Post by thelastwave »

CyberRabbi wrote: post #413
dgellow wrote: post #363

No Assange, no Snowden. What a fool I am, I seriously envisaged that could happen... Instead it’s just more and more corruption.

He pardoned a literal spy who was convicted of espionage of state secrets but he did not pardon Assange. Incredible.

According to some sources he was informed if he pardoned Assange the Senate would vote to convict him following the House impeachment, quid pro quo.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#448

Post by ggcdn »

travisjungroth wrote: post #394
dkarl wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The people who created the system and decided on lifetime terms for Supreme Court judges had a lot of enthusiasm for democracy, but they could see it had flaws, and they wanted the judiciary to be much less sensitive to the mood of the public than the rest of the system. As disappointed (and angry) as I am to see the Republicans steal the Merrick Garland appointment and then replace RBG with someone who has flaunted…

The downside to this is people spend decades being ruled by people they didn’t have a chance to vote against.

But the Supreme Court doesn’t make the rules, it just interprets them. The rules are made by elected representatives.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#449

Post by santoshalper »

zzleeper wrote: post #440
pavlov wrote: post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last night Trump also revoked his own 2017 executive order that prevented federal administration officials from becoming lobbyists after leaving government: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-lobbying-execu... This had been one of his only practical actions towards keeping his campaign promise of "draining the swamp."

I wonder how all the Trump supporters on HNs (maybe 30% or so of commenters, no idea about lurkers) are reacting to this. Levadowski pardon, the spy, the swamp, etc.

95% of them are already reshaping facts to fit their narrative. Maybe a few will start to see how much they were hoodwinked. Even those few won't be able to admit it until they figure out a way to save their ego.

Re: Anthony Levandowski Pardoned

#450

Post by curiousgal »

arthurcolle wrote: post #344
cs702 wrote: post #335

I wonder how much it cost to buy this pardon.

Apparently only 2 million - https://www.businessinsider.com/giuliani-associate-reportedl...

If this is true, then Trump has made what? At least 100 million dollars? I hate the man but I can't help but respect him on some level for gaming the system so well!
Post reply on HN