So Arpaio, a US police sheriff being pardoned is heinous according to McCain and Ryan and, of course, Hollywood! How dare Trump! Perhaps we should take a look at four person’s Obama pardoned in 2016 that everyone gave a pass to:
Khosrow Afghahi Tooraj Faridi and Bahram Mechanic: they were part of a network that illegally transported $24 million in sensitive electronics to Iran. In 2015, they were charged with: circumventing U.S. sanctions and exporting high-tech microelectronics to Iran in violation of the International Emergency Powers Act. In 2016, they were pardoned by Obama.
Nima Golestaneh: An Iranian, in 2015 he hacked into a Vermont aerodynamics company with the intent of stealing millions of dollars worth of software. The name of the company was sealed, and the pardon was also granted in 2016.
There were also a handful of counterfeiters, embezzlers, armed bank robbery and bank defrauders, but most of the other pardons involved drug crimes including the sale and distribution of cocaine and meth.
What was Arpaio’s crime?
Contrary to McCain’s attempt to elevate the charge, the crime that Trump pardoned was a “misdemeanor contempt of court” charge. Granted Arpaio has a ‘colorful’ history that has highlighted his tenure as an Arizona sheriff, however, his pardon was attributed to a misdemeanor charge only, nothing else. And for that, the media is having a frenzy, Swamp GOP traitors are having a hissy fit, and Hollywood is going ballistic.
Bill Clinton’s pardons were met with more than a bit of raised eyebrows as they included; money laundering, tax evasion, wire fraud, conspiracy, bribery, embezzlement, the commutation of his half brother and the infamous pardons of Susan McDougal who covered up for Clinton in the Whitewater scandal, and Christopher Wade who was a real estate agent also associated with the Clinton Whitewater scandal. In addition there was Marc Rich aka Marcell Reich who was convicted of tax evasion and making deals with Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. He fled to Switzerland where he remained free.
WOW! Hardly – misdemeanor crimes…
McCain is furious making the statement that, “No one is above the law…” Really? Obviously McCain is unaware of the hundreds of pardons made by the previous three presidents… McCain would also seem to have forgotten that he immediately hired Elizabeth O’Bagy after it was discovered that she falsified her resume lying about her ties with the Syrian Emergency Task Force, and claiming she had a PhD, when she didn’t. She was terminated from her job at the Institute For The Study of War for job fraud and immediately hired by – McCain.
Obviously, McCain felt O’Bagy was ‘above the law’.
When hypocrisy rules, it typically rules from a short term memory. And McCain’s is presumably quite prevalent.