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Pardon Me?

Former Connecticut Governor John Rowland, Connecticut publications are reporting, has been pardoned by President Donald Trump.

 

The Trump pardon differs in important respects from a slew of pardons issued by former President Joe Biden at the end of his aborted presidential campaign. Biden issued his pardons before he was forced off the presidential ticket by disgruntled Democrat leaders such as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and, Republicans suspect, former President Barrack Obama.   

 

Rowland was indicted and convicted twice, CTMirror has reported. The governor resigned “July 1, 2004 at nearly the midpoint of his third term. He pleaded guilty to a corruption charge on Dec. 23, 2004. Three months later, he was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, ultimately serving 10 months… He was indicted a second time in 2014, accused of soliciting congressional candidates in 2010 and 2012 to secretly pay him as a consultant in campaigns for his old 5th Congressional District seat in violation of campaign finance laws. He was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in prison.”

 

The Rowland pardon occurred after he had been convicted in both cases and sentenced to a combined total of 40 months in prison, all of which he served. Some important Biden political pardons were prospective.  Pardons were issued by Biden – or Biden’s autopen -- on the chance that Trump, thumped in the media repeatedly as a vindictive fascist, might, should he be reelected to a second term in office, prosecute inoffensive political opponents.

 

The use of the auto pen is particularly questionable in view of Biden’s cognitive incapacity. Investigations are underway to determine who the Democrat Svengalis were who may have wielded an authority belonging by law only to the president. Republicans are now in the process of issuing subpoenas to Biden’s staffers.  "We believe these are the staffers that were responsible for using the autopen... We want to ask them, ‘Who gave you the authority to use Joe Biden’s signature?’" said House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer on “Hannity.”

 

On January 19, 2025, Biden issued prospective pardons to “The Members of Congress who served on the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (“Select Committee”); the staff of the Select Committee, as provided by House Resolution 503 (117th Congress); and the police officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department or the U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the Select Committee -- For any offenses against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in arising from or in any manner related to the activities or subject matter of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.”

 

Newsweek reported in January 2025 that Biden had “granted pardons to Dr. Anthony Fauci, retired General Mark Milley, and members of Congress and staff who served on the January 6 Select Committee, including arch-critic Liz Cheney. The sweeping clemency also extends to police officers who testified before the committee investigating the 2021 Capitol attack.”

 

President Biden apparently drew a red line on a prospective pardon of his wayward son, Hunter Biden. He vowed not to pardon his wayward son while a presidential campaign was in progress, later issuing a pardon in 2024.  Shamelessness, most American would agree, does have its limits.

 

Condemnations of the Rowland pardon by active Democrat politicians of note were pro-forma and less than robust, perhaps from fear their opponents might retort that those who live in glass houses should be wary of throwing stones. Bridgeport politicians were unusually reticent. The present mayor of Bridgeport is Joe Ganim, “elected mayor of the city six times, serving from 1991 to 2003, when he resigned after being convicted on federal felony corruption charges. Ganim was charged on 16 federal counts: one count each of racketeering, extortion, racketeering conspiracy, and bribery; two counts of bribery conspiracy; eight counts of mail fraud, and two counts of filing a false tax return. Released after having served 7 years in prison, Ganim was reelected Mayor of Bridgeport in 2015 by a sizable margin after having offered an apology for his past felonious behavior as mayor.

 

The western world derives much of its operative notions of justice from Aristotle, who regarded justice as the prince of virtues. The essence of justice lies, Aristotle thought, in treating things that are similar in a similar manner and things that are different in a different manner: “Thus it is thought that justice is equality; and so it is, but not for all persons, only for those that are equal. Inequality also is thought to be just; and so it is, but not for all, only for the unequal. We make a bad mistake if we neglect this when we are deciding what is just.”

 

Because Connecticut politics is dominated by Democrats, it is highly unlikely – just or not – that Rowland any time soon will retrace Ganim’s easily trod mayoral path to Connecticut’s governorship.

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