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Media invent theories to explain Trump’s pardons

By Eddie Scarry
Published June 7, 2018 5:44pm ET
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Media invent theories to explain Trump’s pardons
U.S. President Donald Trump waits to greet Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime minister, not pictured, at the West Wing of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Thursday, June 7, 2018. Abe has plenty to worry about ahead of Trump's meeting with Kim Jong Un next week, including the prospect of a deal that undermines Japans six-decade security alliance with the U.S. and leaves the island nation vulnerable to attack. | (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg)

A slew of pardons and sentence commutations by President Trump has journalists and media commentators scrambling to figure out their significance and explain what they might reveal about Trump’s mindset.

Trump on Wednesday commuted the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who was convicted in the mid-1990s of several drug charges, a decision inspired by a visit to the White House from reality TV celebrity Kim Kardashian West. Last week, he fully pardoned controversial filmmaker and author Dinesh D’Souza who had pleaded guilty to violating campaign finance laws.

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Donald Trump Joe Arpaio Kim Kardashian Media Pardons