Tangle - Biden's mass clemency.
Episode Date: December 17, 2024On Thursday, President Joe Biden announced the largest single-day act of clemency in modern American history, commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were moved from prison to se...rve home-confinement sentences during the pandemic. Additionally, Biden pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes. Ad-free podcasts are here!Many listeners have been asking for an ad-free version of this podcast that they could subscribe to — and we finally launched it. You can go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up!The gift of Tangle.A quick reminder that you can give the gift of Tangle! We have gift subscriptions on our website that are discounted to encourage buying them for your family member, friend, or colleague (especially those who you struggle to discuss politics with!). Click here to spread the love.You can read today's podcast here, our “Under the Radar” story here and today’s “Have a nice day” story here.Take the survey: What do you think of Biden’s mass clemency? Let us know!You can subscribe to Tangle by clicking here or drop something in our tip jar by clicking here. Our podcast is written by Isaac Saul and edited and engineered by Jon Lall. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75. Our newsletter is edited by Managing Editor Ari Weitzman, Will Kaback, Bailey Saul, Sean Brady, and produced in conjunction with Tangle’s social media manager Magdalena Bokowa, who also created our logo. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, and welcome to the Tangle podcast, a place
we get views from across the political spectrum, some independent thinking, and a little bit
of my take.
I'm your host, Isaac Saul, and on today's episode, we are talking about Biden's commutations
and pardons.
He had a record day of pardons and commutations.
We're going to talk about exactly what happened, share some views from the left and the right,
and then of course, my take.
Before we do though, a quick couple notes.
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With that, I'm going to pass the pod over to John and I'll be back for my take.
Thanks, Isaac. And welcome everybody here or your quick hits for today. First, a shooter killed two people and wounded six others at a school in Madison, Wisconsin.
The suspect, identified as a teenage girl, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and
authorities have not announced a motive.
Number two, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a vote of confidence in the German parliament,
prompting the dissolution of parliament and triggering early elections, which will be held in February.
Schultz will remain in office until parliament elects a new chancellor.
Separately, Canada's finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned abruptly over policy disagreements
with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, including a dispute on handling potential tariffs on
Canadian imports by President Donald Trump's administration.
Elsewhere, Ukraine said it had killed a senior Russian general in a targeted assassination
in Moscow.
3.
Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, pleaded guilty to making false statements
that the head of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid both President Biden and
his son Hunter $5 million. These claims led to a House GOP
investigation into the Biden family's business activities. 4. Judge Juan Marchand ruled that
President-elect Trump's conviction in his New York hush money case was valid, rejecting Trump's team's
efforts to dismiss the conviction after the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity.
5. The Justice Department charged two men with conspiring to export sensitive
technology used in a drone attack in Jordan that killed three American troops earlier
this year to Iran. In one of the final major acts of his administration, President Biden commuted the sentences of
roughly 1,500 people Thursday and pardoned another 39.
The White House called it the largest single-day act of clemency in modern history.
It comes just over a week after Biden's highly criticized decision to grant his son, Hunter
Biden, a broad pardon for any crimes he has or may have committed over the past decade.
On Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden announced the largest single day act of clemency in
modern American history, commuting the sentences of roughly 1,500 people who were moved from
prison to serve home confinement sentences during the
pandemic.
Additionally, Biden pardoned 39 Americans convicted of nonviolent crimes.
The pardons and commutations exceeded the previous single-day record set by Barack Obama,
who commuted the sentences of 330 people on his final day in office in 2017.
Biden said he would continue to review clemency petitions through the end of his term.
As a reminder, a pardon completely absolves someone of guilt, while a commutation reduces
the sentence of a crime without forgiving the person who was convicted. Both pardons
and commutations are forms of clemency. Article 2, Section 2 of the Constitution gives presidents
the power to grant reprieves and pardons for federal crimes.
Presidential pardon power is expansive, but not limitless. Presidents can only pardon offenses against the United States, meaning state criminal offenses and civil penalties cannot be pardoned
by a president. The Supreme Court has said that pardon power is intended to be a tool to offer
mercy and grace to the convicted, and that the power should be used to further public welfare.
Earlier this month, President Biden came under fire
for issuing a far-reaching pardon for his son, Hunter,
who was facing prison time for attacks and gun crimes.
The pardon covered a nearly decade-long period of behavior.
We covered that story,
and there's a link in today's episode description.
Many of Biden's commutations and pardons did not garner attention, but the commutations of two former elected officials
drew harsh criticism. One was Pennsylvania Judge Michael Konehan, who was convicted in 2011
in the Cash for Kids scandal, taking kickbacks from for-profit detention centers in exchange
for wrongly sending juveniles to prison. More than 4,000 juvenile convictions were thrown out due to the scheme.
Conehan's house arrest was set to end in 2026.
Biden's second controversial commutation was for Rita Crundwell, a former comptroller
in Dixon, Illinois who pleaded guilty to a $54 million embezzlement scheme in 2012,
now considered the largest municipal fraud in U.S. history.
Crandwell was slated to be released from house arrest in 2028.
Of the 39 pardoned individuals, many committed non-violent drug offenses in their youth and
had served in the U.S. military.
Today we're going to examine the reactions from the right and the left to Biden's clemency, We'll be right back after this quick break.
Timothy Chalamet transforms into the enigmatic Bob Dylan in a complete unknown, a cinematic
captivation that explores the tumultuous life of a musical icon.
This mesmerizing film captures the essence of Dylan's rebellious spirit and his relentless
pursuit of artistic innovation.
From the director of acclaimed films, Walk the Line and Logan, this extraordinary cinematic
experience is a testament to the power of music and the enduring legacy of a true visionary.
Watch the trailer now and secure your tickets for a truly unforgettable cinematic experience.
A complete unknown, only in theaters December 25th.
This is an ad by BetterHelp.
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All right, first up, let's start with what the right is saying. The right is mostly critical of the commutations and pardons, arguing Biden's blanket approach
was rife with flaws.
Some frame the move as an abuse of power in a presidency filled with them.
Others defend the practice of clemency while questioning Biden's use of it. In The Washington Examiner,
Quinn Hillier said, Biden's mass pardons are unpardonable.
Presidential pardons and commutations can be good policy if judiciously awarded to deserving
recipients. However, Biden is handing out blanket pardons for entire classes of crimes. Not only
does this practice significantly violate the intent of pardon power, but in practice,
it means that wholly undeserving convicts, some of whom committed crimes that should not be
forgiven, will have their records unjustly cleansed," Hillier wrote. The one attracting
the most criticism, deservedly so, is the judge who took bribes to send children to for-profit
juvenile prisons with sentences disproportionate to their crimes
and one of the children killed himself.
These aren't people who committed victimless crimes or ones whose sentences were disproportionate
to the offense.
These aren't people who particularly distinguished themselves with unusually good deeds after
serving time, and who just need their records cleansed so they can regain their right to
vote and the ability to get jobs and bank loans," Hillier said.
These people received sentences commensurate with the major crimes, but were already getting
a break from prison because of a pandemic that is no longer existent.
Now Biden is giving them, for no good reason, the added benefit of a full release.
In PJ Media, Rick Moran wrote, Biden abuses his power of clemency as he has abused all
his other powers.
The urge to create the illusion that the president is a good and just man is just too much to
resist.
Joe Biden is no different as far as the urge to be seen as doing good is concerned.
Where he separates himself from normal, run-of-the-mill presidents is in the scale of his do-gooderism,
Moran said.
Biden's recent pardon of his own son Hunter complicates his moves to grant clemency to
anyone.
Hunter would have been convicted of a gun crime, tax fraud, and several other crimes
for which Americans are rotting in jail.
I'm sure the families of many non-violent criminals who remain locked up wonder about
the president's compassion for his son and not their loved ones.
The commutations are an abuse of the president's clemency power.
Historically, clemency, for the most part, has been granted selectively and carefully.
But Biden's mania for being the first president to name someone of this race or gender to
an important job, or to be the first president to visit this or that country, or be the first
president to do the most, the largest,
the most spectacular, the most awe-inspiring feat
in history, knows no bounds.
In Fox News, Brett L. Tolman argued,
clemency is good policy.
The one day record-breaking commutations
of 1,500 Americans in home confinement
by President Joe Biden is good policy,
despite being an unabashedly transparent political salve for the wound caused by
his nepotistic blanket pardon of his son Hunter," Tullman wrote. The commutation of
the individuals on the CARES Act home confinement is warranted. It's one of the
most successful criminal justice initiatives in this country with a 3.7% recidivism
rate, a fraction of the national average. These individuals were held accountable for their
crimes and through changed behavior and abiding the law, a majority are succeeding outside a
carceral setting. Clemency is not an act of leniency. Sentencing laws must be applied
consistently to every American and clemency should never
be shrouded in secrecy or offered as favors to family or financially well-connected individuals.
While Biden's apparent misuse of his presidential clemency powers overshadows the likely January
6th pardons from President-elect Donald Trump, we cannot afford to forget the thousands of
deserving Americans in our federal prisons already serving disproportionately long sentences, often longer than they would receive if sentenced today.
Alright, that is it for what the right is saying, which brings us to what the left is saying.
The left is saying.
The left is mixed on Biden's acts, with many suggesting they are a more defensible use
of presidential power than Hunter's pardon.
Some say Biden's criteria for clemency was overly broad and offensive to some crime victims.
Others argue that Biden should pursue more commutations before leaving office.
The New York Daily News editorial board wrote,
unlike Hunter's pardon, Biden's clemency grants are just. As President Joe Biden heads to the
end of his time in the Oval Office, he is leaving with an act of compassion for those serving
unnecessarily long federal prison sentences and who have perhaps been targeted by punitive laws
that no longer fit in with our contemporary understandings of fairness and proportionality," the board said.
These grants of clemency were done the right way, through the Department of Justice Office
of the Pardon Attorney under regular procedures, unlike how he broke his word and conferred
on his legitimately convicted but not sentenced son, Hunter, a full and unconditional pardon.
Many of the sentences commuted would have been initially lower
if they had been handed down.
Plus, a chunk of these pardons have been for crimes
that no longer exist in their current form,
or that we don't consider very serious," the board wrote.
In some important ways, the commutations are a recognition
that some laws and sentencing guidelines were disproportionate
and contrary to what should be the ultimate goal of criminal lockup, to issue some punishment, yes, but also to be dissuasive In the Washington Post, Heather Long criticized the broken presidential pardon process.
My jaw dropped when I saw Michael Conahan, a former judge involved in a notorious kids-for-cash
scandal in Pennsylvania, among the nearly 1,500 people President Joe Biden granted clemency
to last week.
The White House portrayed the mass clemency as an historic moment for justice, but Conahan's
commutation only underscores how broken the presidential pardon and clemency process is, Long said.
And administration officials said this wasn't a case-by-case decision.
The Biden team set broad criteria, and Conahan matched them.
That explanation isn't going down well with many in Pennsylvania.
Democratic Governor Josh Shapiro called the clemency absolutely wrong.
Some victims are speaking out in shock.
For Biden, this is
another unforced error. More broadly, it raises fresh questions about presidential
clemency going too far and whether it should exist at all. There was outrage
when former President Donald Trump pardoned allies such as Stephen K.
Bannon, Paul Manafort, and Charles Kushner long wrote. Such dubious grants of
presidential mercy reinforce a belief that America has a two-tiered
justice system where the wealthy and connected fare much better than everyone else, and certainly
better than the young people who came before Judges Conahan and Sia Varela in Luzerne County.
For the Brennan Center, Lauren Brooke Eisen called Biden's move a good start.
President Biden's historic clemency announcement
Thursday is welcome news. It's a major step in the right direction and a recognition of the
excessively punitive nature of our criminal justice system. But there are thousands of
additional people who still deserve clemency. Encouragingly, the White House added that the
President is continuing to review more clemency options," Eisen said. Biden campaigned on a pledge to strengthen America's commitment to justice and reform
our criminal justice system.
One way for him to ensure that his justice policies have a lasting legacy is by more
fully using the clemency power.
Starting on January 20, Donald Trump will have the power to reverse many of the current
administration's policies.
He has already promised as much, vowing to re-institute the federal death penalty. But he cannot reverse
acts of clemency," Eisen wrote. We are still hopeful that Biden will grant clemency to the
more than 40 people on federal death row whose sentences can be commuted to life without parole,
and more than 6,000 serving racially disparate drug sentences.
and more than 6,000 serving racially disparate drug sentences.
All right, let's head over to Isaac for his take.
All right, that is it for What the Left and the Writer's
Sang which brings us to my take.
So I'm going to be honest here. I was shocked by a few of Biden's decisions. In
particular, the commutation of Michael Conahan's sentence just left me staring at my computer
in disbelief. The Kids for Cash scheme is as horrific as the name sounds. It is notorious
in my home state of Pennsylvania. Conahan was literally, literally destroying children's lives
for money, sending them to privately owned juvenile
detention centers for crimes, like making fun
of a principal on MySpace, often maximizing his kickbacks
by imposing the harshest sentences possible.
One of the children Con Conahan's sentence killed himself
after being put behind bars.
That child's mom, Sandy Fonzo, became famous
for confronting the other judge involved
in this kickback scheme outside a courthouse.
After the commutation was announced, she was interviewed.
"'I'm shocked and I am hurt,' she said.
"'Conahan's actions destroyed families,
"'including mine and my son's death,
"'is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power.
This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer.
Right now I'm processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has
brought back.
How could anyone not agree?
It's hard to imagine an act less deserving of clemency than putting children in prison
for trumped up crimes or extending sentences
they already had in exchange for money. If anything, Conahan's sentence of 17 years felt
inadequate to many in Pennsylvania, especially given he's been serving the last few outside of
prison. Rita Cronwell, the other commutation we cited in the introduction, was similarly
gobsmacking. At a time of populist resentment and distrust of institutions, Cronwell is
the poster child for corruption.
She committed the largest municipal fraud in U S history, stealing over
$50 million from a town of 16,000 people in the span of 20 years.
Cronwell spent the money on four dozen cars, a horse breeding operation
and real estate purchases.
As with Conahan,
Biden has made no attempt to justify Cronwell's commutation.
I also want to highlight one more case of clemency. Jim Carlson. I hadn't heard Carlson's
story before Biden commuted his sentence, but he was sentenced for running a synthetic drug ring
in Minnesota that sold enough synthetic drugs to cause a public health crisis in Duluth.
Carlson reportedly used his own employees as guinea pigs to test how the unregulated drugs
worked on customers and misbranded the drugs as incense, bath salts, and glass cleaner
to sell them out of his shop.
Given the impact these people had on their communities, I think it's worth considering
how those communities actually reacted to Biden's acts.
Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, speaking about the
Connaughan clemency, said,
Biden got it absolutely wrong and created a lot of pain here in
Northeastern Pennsylvania.
Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, also a Democrat, said that while some of the
pardons were probably worthy, there were a number that I think make no sense at
all, seemingly referring to Carlson.
And Danny Langloss, the current city manager
of Dixon, Illinois, where Cronwell stole over $50 million,
said the city is, quote, shocked and outraged
with the announcement that President Biden
has given Rita Cronwell clemency
for the largest municipal embezzlement
in the history of our country.
This is a complete travesty of justice
and a slap in the face for our entire community.
The 39 pardons that Biden granted,
as well as many hundreds of commutations,
appear to be fair or even just.
Many were nonviolent crimes involving people
who had served lengthy sentences
and worked to rehabilitate themselves.
Clemency petitions often come with powerful details
of what convicted criminals have been doing
since they were put behind bars. And many of these people have spent years helping
others and trying to repair the damage they've done.
Others were simply serving extended sentences for crimes that are no longer punished with
long sentences, and it makes sense to allow those people to go back to their lives.
Granting clemency to the trio of Conahan, Cranwell, and Carlson doesn't fit at all with those ideals.
The administration has framed the clemency as an act of mercy before the holidays,
justifying the decisions by saying the cases they commuted fit a broad set of criteria
and didn't get into the specifics of these cases.
But an anonymous administration official told Politico the White House had not considered any of the troubling details around cases like Conahan's, a jarring revelation concerning
what he was convicted of.
Granting commutations in mass based on broad criteria is a dangerous and insufficient way
to handle pardons, and commuting their sentences completely overshadows the rest of what Biden
was trying to do.
And rightfully so.
We are living in a time where diseases of despair,
like addiction and suicide, are everywhere. We're living in a time where mistrust of the judicial
system is at an all-time high and vigilante justice is being celebrated. We're living in a time where
the government is viewed as incompetent and corrupt. And in this moment, Biden gives reprieve to a
corrupt judge who destroyed children's lives,
a corrupt government official who stole millions from a small town,
and a shop owner who used his place in the community to poison people with synthetic drugs.
It's just hard to understand, and it's impossible to support.
We'll be right back after this quick break.
Timothy Chalamet reinvents himself again as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a riveting
portrayal of the legendary artist's meteoric rise and groundbreaking journey.
Witness the untamed spirit of a musical pioneer brought to life.
From James Mangold, the visionary director of Walk the Line and Logan,
this powerful film celebrates the courage to create and the legacy of an icon who redefined
music forever. Watch the trailer now and get your tickets for a story that inspired generations.
A Complete Unknown, only in theaters December 25th.
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All right. That is it for my take today, which brings us to your questions answered.
This one is from Jim in Ashland, Oregon. Jim wrote,
Elon Musk recently said that the F-35, the combat aircraft design, was broken at the requirements
level because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive and
complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes,
and manned fighter jets are obsolete
in the age of drones anyway. They will just get pilots killed."
I totally agree with Mr. Musk, especially his fourth sentence. I've said for a few
years now, why are we still building manned fighters like the F-35 instead of unmanned
fighter drones? With fighter drones, you don't need to spend millions of dollars to train
pilots, risk their lives, and suffer all of the human foibles such as fatigue. If we are serious about
reining in our huge deficits, which I doubt, we could reduce the defense budget without adversely
impacting our defenses by ending the F-35 program right now. What do you think?"
Okay, so this is a repeated mantra around the virtual Tangle water cooler. If you are serious about cutting federal spending, then you have to look at the biggest areas
where the federal government spends money right now.
That's healthcare, 13%, defense, 14%, Medicare, 16%, and social security, 20%.
In line items that big, I'm sure you'll find some significant excessive spending somewhere
and must comments about the F35.
They sound right to me.
Now, I'll add a couple important caveats to this. First of all, all of the largest spending
categories are probably not that big primarily because of waste, but because they serve a vital
and far-reaching need. What could be more important in our country than our national security and the
health and welfare of our citizens? And I also know what many of you will say about social security,
that it's our money, we paid into it ourselves, and we deserve the benefits that come from that.
That's a bit oversimplified, but still, the program is so popular that it's very difficult
to curtail. Then there's the issue of things like scapegoating. When we read about health
care inefficiencies, we often hear about PBMs, pharmacy benefit managers, as big drivers of cause.
However,
they're also talked about like the big bad boogeymen in healthcare and they aren't.
The issues in our healthcare system are complex, deep rooted, and many.
The same is true for military spending. I can't tell you how many articles I've read
about the F-35's $2 trillion price tag. I'm not going to sit here and tell you those articles
are wrong and that the jet is worth the cost.
In fact, I think the jet is probably overpriced and that Musk is probably right.
I just want to be cautious not to say, let's scrap the F-35 and call the problem solved.
In my most optimistic read, I think finding inefficiencies like this are exactly what
Musk and the Doge committee could do best, and I hope he keeps doing it.
All right. With that, I'm going to send it back to John for the rest of the podcast, and I hope he keeps doing it. All right, with that, I'm going to send it back to John
for the rest of the podcast, and I'll see you guys tomorrow.
Have a good one.
Thanks, Isaac.
Here's your Under the Radar story for today, folks.
On Friday, the consulting firm McKinsey and Company
agreed to pay $650 million to resolve criminal and civil
investigations into its work advising opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma. Federal prosecutors
charged McKinsey's U.S. branch with conspiring to misbrand a drug and obstruction of justice
for its efforts to help Purdue boost sales of Oxycontin, a painkiller widely viewed as the
catalyst of the opioid crisis.
As part of the agreement, McKinsey admitted that it chose to continue working with Purdue
despite knowing the risks of Oxycontin and that it had advised the company to turbocharge
sales of the drug.
USA Today has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.
All right. Next up is our numbers section. The number of people
granted clemency by President Biden prior to last week's announcement was
161. The number of men and women respectively whose sentences were
commuted by President Biden is 1,217 and 282. The median age of those granted clemency by Biden is 51. The
number of people who were granted clemency who had less than a year left in their sentence
was 769. The percentage of U.S. adults who approve of presidents having the power to
pardon or commute prison sentences of people convicted of federal crimes is 51%, according to an August
2024 YouGov poll. The approximate percentage of Biden's total acts of clemency that have been
granted during his final fiscal year in office, though his term is ongoing, is 90%, according to
Pew Research. The percentage of President Trump's total acts of clemency that came during his final
fiscal year in office was 84%. And the percentage of President Obama's total acts of clemency that came during his final fiscal year in office was 84%.
And the percentage of President Obama's total acts of clemency that came during his
final fiscal year in office was 61%.
And last but not least, our Have a Nice Day story.
Max Goldberg, a Philadelphia resident and DIY project enthusiast, had an old sports
display clock and an idea. Goldberg, a Philadelphia resident and DIY project enthusiast, had an old sports display
clock and an idea.
Using publicly available data about the bus system, Goldberg set out to link the clock
to the bus system so that the clock would show the number of minutes until the next
bus arrived.
The successfully created clock now sits in his front window, where individuals waiting
for the bus can clearly view it.
If I can do anything to make public transit a little less annoying for people," Goldberg
said, I feel like it's my duty.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has this story, and there's a link in today's episode description.
Alright everybody, that is it for today's episode.
As always, if you'd like to support our work, please go to readtangle.com and sign up for a membership.
You can also go to tanglemedia.supercast.com to sign up for a premium podcast membership,
which gets you ad-free daily podcasts, Friday editions, Sunday editions, interviews,
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For Isaac and the rest of the crew, this is John Ma Wall signing off. Have a great day, y'all.
Peace.
Our podcast is written by me, Isaac Saul, and edited and engineered by John Wall.
The script is edited by our managing editor, Ari Weitzman, Will K. Back, Bailey Saul, and
Sean Brady.
The logo for our podcast was designed by Magdalena Bacopa, who is also our social
media manager. Music for the podcast was produced by Diet 75.
If you're looking for more from Tangle, please go to reettangle.com and check out our website. Timothy Chalamet reinvents himself again as Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown, a riveting
portrayal of the legendary artist's meteoric rise and groundbreaking journey.
Witness the untamed spirit of a musical pioneer brought to life.
From James Mangold, the visionary director of Walk the Line and Logan, this powerful This is an ad by BetterHelp.
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Therapy can feel a bit like that.
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It's convenient and suited to your schedule.
Find comfort this season with BetterHelp.
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