Donald Trump grants pardons to 15, including his former campaign adviser

Lame-duck US President Donald Trump on Tuesday granted pardons to 15 people including two, who were linked with a probe into alleged collusion between his campaign and Russia. The move can invite further controversies as Trump has still not conceded his election defeat to Democrat President-elect Joe Biden. 

In a statement, the White House said that Trump had granted full pardons to 15 people and commuted all or part of the sentences for five others. Among those who received full pardon was George Papadopoulos, a former Trump campaign adviser who had admitted lying to federal investigators about his contacts with Russia. He was part of Trump’s foreign policy advisory panel when the Republican ran for the presidency in 2016, AFP reports. 

Papadopoulos pleaded guilty in 2017 to lying to the FBI about having contacts with a professor who promised to connect him to senior Russian officials and spent 12 days in jail after that. 

The 33-year-old had cooperated with investigators led by Robert Mueller, who conducted a two-year probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

“Today’s pardon helps correct the wrong that Mueller’s team inflicted on so many people,” the White House statement said.

Alex van der Zwaan, a Dutch lawyer who was also convicted in connection with Mueller’s probe, was also granted a full pardon by Trump on Tuesday.

Other people who received full pardon were four Blackwater security guards convicted over the 2007 killing of Iraqis and three former Republican members of Congress. 

The White House statement said the four men, former members of the military convicted over the 2007 shootings, “have a long history of service to the nation.”