Trump pardons convicted Binance founder • Hacker News Board

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#661

Post by neilv » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:14 AM UTC

YouAreWRONGtoo wrote: post #595

FridayoLeary wrote: post #588

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I heard the intention was that sometimes it's against the public good to prosecute some people even though they have comitted crimes. Good examples of it being used as intended was pardoning the perpetrators of the whiskey rebellion, the confederate army, vietnam draft dodgers and more controversially, Nixon. I guess it's also intended in cases where obvious miscarriages of justice have been committed. It made sense…

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I think you're onto something, for a kind of second-chance review function, but instead of "with an Ivy League education", perhaps you most want people knowledgeable about both judicial process and society.

"Ivy League education" isn't a totally bad predictor, but it's going to be very biased towards people with privileged socioeconomic backgrounds, who therefore may have blind spots of aspects of society that apply to the situation. (No matter how many books they've read, classes they've taken, years of volunteering with the less-advantaged they've done, and hours of NPR they've listened to.)

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#662

Post by paulryanrogers » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

captainkrtek wrote: post #516

hshdhdhehd wrote: post #345

Poor drug dealers: Extrajudicial murder in international waters. Rich drug dealers: Freedom. Be a rich drug dealer.

More generically: Poor criminal: jail/death penalty/etc. Rich criminal: freedom

Famous and rich criminal: the presidency

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#663

Post by Ankaios » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:19 AM UTC

If you have Republican senators or a Republican House rep, call their offices and tell them what you think of this.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#664

Post by paulryanrogers » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

charcircuit wrote: post #600

hshdhdhehd wrote: post #345

Poor drug dealers: Extrajudicial murder in international waters. Rich drug dealers: Freedom. Be a rich drug dealer.

CZ already paid a fine and finished serving his time in jail. He was already free before the pardon.

Wasn't he barred from working in financial services? I imagine a full pardon would remove any pesky details that might stand in the way.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

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Post by taink » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:20 AM UTC

kalavan wrote: post #593

dmix wrote: post #585

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The French approach of just rebooting and reinstalling the entire thing seems like a good idea at this point. Do you mean the French Revolution? If you actually read the history on that (even basic stuff beyond the "Reign of Terror") I don't think any person would want to experience that for their country. It had tons of indiscriminate violence and took a decade of chaos before they sorted out into a real governmen…

It's more likely a reference to France currently being the Fifth Republic.[1] The transition from the Fourth to the Fifth happened in 1958 without much violence. [1] https://thegoodlifefrance.com/short-history-of-the-five-repu...

> The transition from the Fourth to the Fifth happened in 1958 without much violence.

Quoting from the article:

  Things came to a head in 1958 as France struggled to decolonize. There was strong opposition within France to Algerian independence and part of the army openly rebelled. Important generals threatened a coup unless de Gaulle was returned to power. They sent paratroopers to capture Corsica in case anyone missed their point.

The article even fails to mention Operation Resurrection. Hopefully we don't need coups every time we want a new constituent assembly.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

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Post by khazhoux » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:23 AM UTC

Ankaios wrote: post #663

If you have Republican senators or a Republican House rep, call their offices and tell them what you think of this.

Yes! This will be the time they finally push back on Trump.

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#667

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:27 AM UTC

munk-a wrote: post #512

adgjlsfhk1 wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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Trump is miles ahead of other administrations in abusing it but as far back as my political awareness reaches (the Clinton admin) there have been clear awful examples like Marc Rich[1]. I certainly have a political lean but there are some really indefensible pardons on each side. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Rich

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Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#668

Post by khazhoux » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:27 AM UTC

Genuine question:

If one wanted to get in on the Trump grift, and had no moral qualms, how would you do it?

Can you come up with a realistic fast path to snag, say, $5 million within 2 years from Trumpland?

Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#669

Post by screenoridesagb » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:28 AM UTC

Terr_ wrote: post #657

noisy_boy wrote: post #647

There should be a limit on the number of pardons a president can do during their tenure so that they have to at least think a bit before using it. It is a very powerful tool that actually allows a last resort. But this kind of egregious abuse of it's power means it needs to be kept in check.

> There should be a limit There is, and the Constitution says the limit is impeachment and removal from office by Congress. That won't happen unless we fix how we talk about the ones responsible, to wit: The Republican Party pardoned these criminals. The Republican Party is snatching Americans off the streets. The Republican Party is using the military to murder people on boats. The Republican Party is demolishing do…

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Re: Trump pardons convicted Binance founder

#670

Post by Arainach » Fri, Oct 24, 2025, 1:30 AM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #638

Arainach wrote: post #617

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both of those were very bad, but nothing compared to the raw corruption in Trump's pardons.

The word "nothing" is completely inappropriate in describing Watergate and Iran-Contra, among the worst political scandals in American history, both involving gross abuse of executive power. I certainly don't see how the pardon of Changpeng Zhao is worse than the pardon of President Richard Nixon or Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Crimes committed in office by the highest officials in the US government are a…

Ford at least had the misguided excuse of wanting to put the scandal behind and focus on the future.

Trump's pardons include hundreds of literal insurrectionists, promises to pardon in exchange for not testifying against him (witness tampering), and other blatant corruption. He fired the head of the OPA and installed a political hack to speedrun awful pardon choices and made a mockery of the process in a far more corrupt and damaging manner than anyone before him, and it's not even close.