Trump pardons ex-Staten Island and Brooklyn GOP Rep. Michael Grimm, commutes sentence of notorious gang leader Larry Hoover

 https://nypost.com/2025/05/28/us-news/trump-pardons-ex-staten-island-rep-michael-grimm/

Hoover received a life sentence from the state of Illinois in 1973 for allegedly ordering the murder of  William “Pooky” Young, 19, after Young stole drugs and money from the gang. That charge cannot be pardoned by the president, but it was not immediately clear whether Hoover would be returned to Illinois custody.

Hoover, now 74, received six federal life sentences in 1998 for allegedly continuing to run the gang from prison — with prosecutors alleging his illicit business empire raked in $100 million annually selling heroin, cocaine, crack and other drugs.

“You were able to do what you did in jail for 25 years — you’re amazing,” Chicago federal judge Harry Leinenweber told Hoover during sentencing. 

Trump, who has for years threatened federal intervention to address gang violence in Chicago, did not immediately issue a public statement explaining his decision.

Hoover’s commutation, first reported by NOTUS and confirmed by The Post, follows a push by rappers Kanye West — a Chicago native — and Drake, both of whom argue Hoover is a changed man.einenweber told Hoover during sentencing. 

What is an 'autopen' and do Trump's claims about Joe Biden's use of it stack up?

 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-03-18/what-is-an-autopen-and-trump-claims-examined/105064992

Donald Trump claims Joe Biden's January 6 committee pardons are "void" because the former president signed them using an "autopen".

Presidents — including Trump — have used autopens for decades to sign documents and correspondence.

And one expert says that by raising the issue, Trump is only opening himself up for potential problems down the track.

Trump hasn't offered any evidence to support his claims, and neither has the White House.

When asked whether Trump had legal authority to void pardons signed by autopen, press secretary Karoline Leavitt questioned Biden's awareness of the pardons in the first place.

Dr Melkonian says there is no evidence to support Trump's claims, but if pardons were being signed without Biden's knowledge, it would be "a constitutional failure".

"Trump is really exaggerating the Biden situation," he said.

"The mere fact you disagree with what Joe Biden did does not mean he was mentally incompetent. There’s a big difference."

Trump tries to void Biden's pardons, blaming autopen. Many presidents have used it

 https://www.npr.org/2025/03/17/nx-s1-5330709/autopen-biden-pardon-void

President Trump is claiming without evidence that some of former President Joe Biden's actions are invalid because he allegedly used a machine to automate signatures on documents, which is a longstanding practice in the White House.

The notion that Biden relied on the autopen to sign important documents was heavily perpetuated by the Oversight Project, an arm of the Heritage Foundation that played a key role in promoting false claims about noncitizen voting last year.

It is not clear whether Biden actually used an autopen to sign the documents in question. And even if he did, legal experts say it's not clear the pardons could be rescinded — for that or any other reason.

Jay Wexler, a professor of constitutional law at Boston University School of Law, told NPR he thinks the autopen issue is a "nonstarter" and a "distraction." Importantly, he says, there is nothing in the Constitution that requires pardons be in writing at all.

Trump and Senate Republicans are finally pushing back hard against Putin

Drag shows and 'trophy wives' : Trump's rambling West Point commencement left many confused

US official who promoted antisemitic conspiracies appointed Pentagon press secretary

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-official-who-promoted-antisemitic-conspiracies-appointed-pentagon-press-secretary/

Kingsley Wilson, a US Department of Defense official who has repeatedly echoed antisemitic rhetoric online, will serve as the Pentagon’s new press secretary, according to an announcement Friday.

Wilson was appointed in January as deputy press secretary at the Pentagon and faced backlash from the Anti-Defamation League as well as several senators for a history of promoting antisemitic conspiracy theories. Last year, Wilson tweeted a neo-Nazi talking point about Jewish lynching victim Leo Frank, whose murder spurred the ADL’s creation.

Rogue pardon spree exposes Trump's political games and actual indifference to crimes

Trump, the stupidest and most cowardly president in American history, backed down again

Wall Street Journal calls for GOP Senate ‘revolt’ in confronting Russia

 https://thehill.com/homenews/media/5319584-wall-street-journal-gop-senate-trump-putin-russia-ukraine/?tbref=hp

The Wall Street Journal editorial board is calling for Senate Republicans to push President Trump to take a tougher stance on Russia as the president tries to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.

“Mr. Trump may be the only person in the world still surprised by how Mr. Putin is behaving. The Russian is the same man he’s been for two decades, bent on reconstituting as much of the old Soviet empire as he can get away with,” the Journal wrote in an editorial published Monday.

The Journal argued Trump’s “naivete is helping Russia continue the killing as long as Mr. Putin wants.”

Calls to Free George Floyd’s Murderer Grow — Here’s Why It’s Unlikely to Happen

 https://capitalbnews.org/pardon-derek-chauvin-demands/

Even if a pardon for his federal conviction was issued, it would not affect Chauvin’s murder case because the president has no jurisdiction over state criminal convictions. Trump does have the authority to pardon one of Chauvin’s convictions for violating the federal civil rights of Floyd.

“I think it behooves us to be prepared for it,” said Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in response to the possibility of Chauvin’s presidential pardon and return to state custody. “With this presidency, it seems like that might be something they would do.”

Ben Shapiro, Elon Musk, and other MAGA conservatives have downplayed the role of race in Floyd’s death since, dismissing the video evidence and condemning the jury’s verdict. 

Could Derek Chauvin be pardoned? Conservative commentator launches effort to petition Trump

 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/03/06/us/derek-chauvin-pardon-ben-shapiro

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro has publicly called for the president to pardon former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin for federal crimes related to George Floyd’s 2020 death – drawing derision from the Minnesota attorney general who helped put Chauvin in prison but amplification from one of Trump’s most powerful advisers.

Smoking and Halacha

 https://ohr.edu/this_week/insights_into_halacha/5717

Several years ago, his son, Rav Dovid Feinstein shlit”a, was quoted as saying that with the current knowledge of the harm smoking causes, it is pashut that had his father, Rav Moshe, still been alive today, he would have prohibited smoking outright, as his dispensation was only based on the ‘fact’ that smoking endangered only a small percentage of smokers.[26] Indeed, in a newly discovered and recently published teshuva of Rav Moshe’s, dated Elul 5732, he himself wrote that his famous lenient psak was based on the facts as they were known at the time.[27] He added that if the metzius would change and the percentages of those proven harmed by smoking would increase, then certainly it would be prohibited to smoke, at least the amount the doctors considered harmful to one’s health.

There are proven ways to keep protests peaceful. Trump is doing the opposite.

https://www.vox.com/2020/10/1/21427388/trump-protests-black-lives-matter-kenosha-wisconsin-portland-oregon

 In the months of Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in May, President Donald Trump has called on local and state officials to crack down as harshly as possible — a call he repeated at Tuesday’s presidential debate. But experts say that Trump’s rhetoric and actions risk inflaming tensions and escalating protests further, instead of keeping the peace.

But if the goal is ensuring that protesters can exercise their First Amendment rights while avoiding the outbreaks of violence seen in Portland; Kenosha, Wisconsin; and other cities in the US this past summer, the confrontational, dismissive approach that Trump and his allies are taking will very likely make things worse, experts say.

The point of protests is for people to feel heard. Demonstrators are marching in the streets because they want to say something, and they want others — the public, politicians, and so on — to see and hear those messages.

None of this justifies the damage and harm that riots and general violence do. (And the research suggests riots can backfire politically.) But if you want to stop people from rioting, you have to understand the issues that led people to riot in the first place.

Meanwhile, Trump is basically doing the opposite of what experts recommend to calm tense demonstrations.

Perhaps the escalation is intentional. Trump has repeatedly pointed to the protests and chaos in US cities in what seems like an attempt to distract from his failures as president, including his botched handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and the collapsing economy. His campaign for president appears to see the violence as beneficial, speaking to the need for Trump’s dog whistle of “law and order.”

Rabbi assaulted by masked individuals in North Baltimore parking lot