Outgoing US President Donald Trump is expected to issue between 50-100 commutations and pardons before leaving office this week, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is not among them, Fox News reported on Monday, citing sources
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th January, 2021) Outgoing US President Donald Trump is expected to issue between 50-100 commutations and pardons before leaving office this week, and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is not among them, Fox news reported on Monday, citing sources.
Granting clemency to convicts by outgoing presidents is a regular practice in the United States. Over the past few months, Trump pardoned a few dozens people, including such individuals as his ex-campaign manager Paul Manafort and ex-US national security adviser Michael Flynn, who were convicted under the Mueller investigation into foreign meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.
According to the report, which cites two sources familiar with the list, the outgoing president plans to issue between 50 and 100 new commutations and pardons by Wednesday noon. The announcement might reportedly come as early as Tuesday.
The broadcaster said the list at the moment includes both individuals whose pardon is already decided, such as rapper Lil Wayne, and those marked "TBD," such as former Trump associate Steve Bannon.
Trump is reportedly not expected to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, whom a UK court recently saved from extradition to the United States on espionage charges, but kept behind bars in the Belmarsh prison for US prosecutors to appeal the verdict.
Assange was initially convicted by the Obama administration for conspiring to hack classified information on a government computer. In 2019, charges were expanded to include espionage offenses, punishable by total 175 years. Assange is believed to be responsible for the largest leak of classified information in history on WikiLeaks in 2010 which shed light on atrocities committed by US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
