Michael Cohen, former attorney to President Donald Trump who testified against him last year, is one of five individuals seeking a pardon from the president, citing the “cognitive decline” of the previous president who denied their petitions.
Jesse Jackson Jr., Warren Ballentine, Michael Rothenberg and Dr. Michael Jones joined Cohen in penning a guest column for The Hill, asking Trump for the very thing they were denied by former President Joe Biden.
“Biden’s pardons of close associates and family members raised serious ethical and legal concerns, particularly when others in
All five were convicted of federal crimes over the past 12 years and all have completed their sentences. At issue for them now is making a living and becoming “productive member of our communities again,” they wrote, an outcome denied by Biden via emails on Trump’s Inauguration Day.
“The issue at hand was not about his legal right to grant pardons, but whether his cognitive condition affected the integrity of such decisions,” they wrote. “This is particularly noteworthy since Biden used the full Nixon-era formula in granting ‘full, complete, absolute and unconditional’ pardons to members of his family, covering a lengthy period of time and without citing any specific alleged wrongdoing on their part.”
In addition to pardoning his son, Hunter Biden, after one federal gun conviction and a plea of guilty in his tax evasion case and despite asserting for months that he would not pardon him, President Biden gave blanket pardons to other family members as well as House Jan. 6 select committee members, all of whom had not and have not been charged with any crimes.
The five wrote of Biden, “If his cognitive decline influenced these pardons, then others denied pardons on similar grounds deserve reconsideration.”
According to The Hill: Jackson, a former congressman, pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud his reelection campaign; Ballentine was convicted of fraud in 2013; Rothenberg was convicted of wire fraud; Jones was convicted of healthcare fraud.
Cohen pleaded guilty to federal tax crimes in connection with the business records case in New York that ultimately led to him being a witness against Trump in the trial that resulted in 34 felony convictions for the president.
