Daily US Times: US President Donald Trump has pardoned ex-adviser Roger Stone, former campaign manager Paul Manafort and the father of Trump’s son-in-law.
Paul Manafort was convicted in 2018 in an investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
President Trump has previously commuted the prison sentence of Roger Stone, who was convicted of lying to Congress.
They are among 29 people to benefit from the president’s latest clemency spree before he leaves office next month.
Twenty-six of them received full pardons from Mr Trump while another three received commutations.
A commutation usually takes the form of a reduced prison time, but does not erase the conviction or imply innocence.
A pardon is an expression of the president’s forgiveness that also confers extra privileges such as restoring the convict’s right to vote or serve on juries.
President Trump’s pardon for Manafort spared his former campaign chairman from serving most of his seven-and-a-half-year prison term for conspiring to obstruct the investigation into him and financial fraud.
In a Tweet, the grateful Manaforst said: “Mr President, my family & I humbly thank you for the Presidential Pardon you bestowed on me. Words cannot fully convey how grateful we are.”
Another pardon went to Charles Kushner, the father of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner who is also a senior White House adviser.
The senior Kushner was sentenced to two years in prison in 2004 for charges including campaign finance offences, tax evasion and witness tampering.
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