Trump Watch 20180710

And you get a pardon.  And you get a Pardon.

I haven't seen a list of the Pardons that Trump is considering, and not really sure how this one came up to him.  I'm not familiar enough with the Hammond case to have much of a feeling for the situation.  The Hammonds started a fire on federal land which wound up being prosecuted under anti-terrorism statutes, and as such carried a five year mandatory sentence.  While they were convicted under that statute, the judge in the case set that mandatory sentence aside (I'm not really sure how that is legal, but I have heard of "mandatory" sentences being ignored in other cases as well).  Federal prosecutors appealed that ruling, and got the mandatory sentence put in place.

Now injustices happen all the time, and this case does appeal to the Trump base, so I can understand the pardon from a political perspective.  I also can see why Trump likes the pardon power, since it really doesn't have any oversight.  It is a power that he can exercise pretty much on a whim.  It also works well in the PR world much on the maxim of "The death of an individual is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."  Pardons are (for the most part) pretty individual, and in a case like this can come off as a remedy to a miscarriage of justice.  Of course, pardons can come across as a repudiation of the courts as well, as politically expedient, and as basically personal favors, but the power is the President's alone to do with as the President wishes.

• Stormy Daniels
• Trump Charity lawsuit by New York Attorney General
• FBI investigation (it keeps being called a Russian Collusion investigation, but I'm pretty sure more to it than that at this point)
• North Korea
• The Space Force
• The Border Wall
• Alien Children Detention/family separation
• Presidential Pardons
• Civil War Monuments
• Muslim Travel Ban
• China Tariffs/Trade
• Canada-G7 Tariffs/Trade
• NAFTA
• Puerto Rico response
• Military Parade in Washington
• World Trade Organization
• Covfefe Syndrome

Giuliani still there as Lawyer
John F. Kelly still there as Chief of Staff - 6-29-2018  Trump says "Things Happen."
Jeff Sessions still there as Attorney General
Sarah Huckabee Sanders still there as Press Secretary, rumors continue to be denied.
Mike Pompeo - Secretary of State

John Bolton - National Security Advisor

Marc Short - White House Legislative Affairs Director - no denial of plans regarding his departure prior to the 2018 midterms.

Kirstjen Nielsen - Homeland Security Secretary

Joe Hagin - White House deputy Chief of Staff is resigning.- reported June 19th

Scott Pruitt - EPA Director - Resigned 7-5-2018