Trump Sets New Record For Number Of White-Collar Criminal Pardons

We've got news coming out about the Trump pardons. It's been calculated over a billion dollars in restitution has been lost. This administration said they're going to save us so much money and what they're doing is losing money because Donald Trump is out there pardoning people and organizations that have given him tons of money over the years, or shown him a ridiculous level of support, like the Capitol rioters.

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*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

So we've got news coming out, more news about the Trump pardons. Now it's been calculated over a billion dollars in restitution has been lost. And for folks who don't know, when a criminal is put away or they plead guilty or they're convicted, restitution is the amount they owe the victims of their crime. Whether that victim be a person or an institution, they have to pay that as part of their punishment. So when you pardon them, that goes away. They don't have to pay anymore. And apparently it's racked up to over a billion dollars.

Yeah. This administration that said they're gonna save us so much money, we're gonna bring in so much money. Trump repeatedly says it's the Golden Age of the United States, we're gonna all be rich. And what they're doing is they're losing money because Donald Trump is out there pardoning people and organizations that have given him tons of money over the years, or shown him a ridiculous level of support like the Capitol rioters. But there was this great analysis done that kind of broke it down into several different individuals. One of them was a whole Binance group involved in crypto that basically had defrauded people out of $640 million and by issuing this pardon that restitution that was owed, some of it of course to the federal government, gone. That is now income that the United States that clearly desperately needs a little bit of money coming in we don't get. Other individuals, this woman, a Republican politician in the southwest had raised a ton of money because she wanted to build statues for fallen police officers. Very noble cause. Good for you. You're out there. You raised millions of dollars and she just spent it on herself. She went on luxury shopping trips, went on vacations, all kinds of great stuff. Got convicted. Trump issues pardon. She doesn't have to pay any of the money back, including to the organizations that she defrauded.

It probably didn't hurt her cause that she's called the Trump of Vegas. I've heard her called the Trump of Vegas. I also was looking at this, Jason Galanis, I'm probably mispronouncing his name, defrauded Native American tribes across the country. But he helped with the Hunter Biden Investigations. $80 million in restitution has been forgiven. Paul Erickson, the one that was dating the Russian asset a couple years ago, $3 million that he defrauded people out of schemes. Trump didn't say he was innocent, by the way, in the press release said, his crime was a minor crime and gave him a full pardon. Now I want to be clear. The president and this president knows the difference between, or somebody that works for him knows the difference, between a pardon and clemency or commuting a sentence.

So a pardon means you did it. We don't care. It's all forgiven. But if you commute the sentence, you can get out of prison or whatever punishment, but you still have to pay that restitution and these fines. He knows this, and we know he knows this because the former mayor of Detroit was told, if you campaign for me, I will pardon you. Kwane Kilpatrick, he campaigned for him. Obviously, Trump won, $800,000 in restitution. His sentence was only commuted. So he still has to pay this. He's complaining in the press that he didn't get the pardon that he was promised in the quid pro quo.

Well, you lie down with dogs, you're gonna wake up with fleas and so good, you kind of got what you deserved. You sold your soul and you still have to pay your $800,000. So good for you. Way to make smart decisions there. But for me, a lot of this really is just this overarching lie from the beginning of this administration before they were even sworn in, that we are gonna save you money.