Trump pardons buddies Manafort, Stone and Kushner

 

US President Donald Trump has pardoned former campaign manager Paul Manafort, ex-adviser Roger Stone and the father of Mr Trump’s son-in-law Charles Kushner.

Manafort was convicted in 2018 in an investigation into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 US election.

Trump has previously commuted the prison sentence of Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress.

They are among 29 people to benefit from Mr Trump’s latest clemency spree in the dying hours of his administration.

Twenty-six of them won full pardons on Wednesday night, while another three received commutations.

A commutation usually takes the form of a reduced prison term, but does not erase the conviction or imply innocence.

A pardon is an expression of the president’s forgiveness that confers extra privileges such as restoring the convict’s right to vote.

The president’s decision to pardon close aide has drawn criticism from both side of the divide, with Adam Schiff, the Democratic head of the influential House Intelligence Committee, tweeting: “Trump’s pardon now completes the corrupt scheme. Lawless until the bitter end.”