Newsletter: Pardons for Trump’s Friends, Punishment for His Foes

If you are with the administration, you are above the law; but if you stand up to Trump, the law will be weaponized against you.

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The Trump administration’s despotism was on full display this week as the president issued sweeping pardons to his supporters and ratcheted up his attacks on Harvard University. While Trump has called on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Harvard’s tax exempt status, many of the individuals he recently pardoned had been convicted of tax crimes. The message is clear: if you are with Trump, you are above the law; but if you stand up to Trump, the law will be weaponized against you.

Trump’s most recent flurry of pardons blatantly rewarded his allies. Ed Martin, Trump’s pardon attorney, brazenly posted on X, “No MAGA left behind.”

Trump’s pardon of Paul Walczak, a former nursing home executive who pleaded guilty to tax crimes, cited the support of Elizabeth Fago, Walczak’s mother, for Trump. The pardon came just weeks after Fago attended a fundraiser for Trump that cost $1 million per plate.
Todd and Julie Chrisley, reality television stars who were serving prison sentences after their convictions for tax evasion and fraud, were also pardoned by the president this week. Their daughter, a Trump supporter, spoke at the Republican Convention last summer and had lobbied the president for her parent’s release in February.
Trump also pardoned others convicted of tax crimes, including former Rep. Michael Grimm and former Arkansas state senator Jeremy Hutchinson.
In total, Trump granted clemency to more than two dozen people this week. The president also indicated he would consider pardoning the men charged with planning to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmore in 2020.

In sharp contrast, Trump is punishing the educational institutions, law firms, legal advocacy groups, and nonprofit organizations that have opposed his anti-democratic agenda. His actions warp government agencies — like the IRS — that are intended to serve Americans and turn them into authoritarian sledgehammers that serve only the president’s political interest. There is no better example of this than Trump’s escalating crusade to punish Harvard University for refusing to scrap its diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

After three previous rounds of funding cancellations, the administration now plans to sever all remaining federal ties to the university, amounting to an additional $100 million in cuts.
Last week, the administration barred the university from enrolling international students, a key funding source. Thursday, Harvard scored a victory when a federal judge indicated she would issue an order to temporarily block the ban’s enforcement.
Harvard University first drew the wrath of the administration in April after it refused to enact wide-ranging changes demanded by the administration. The administration has since cancelled more than $3 billion in federal funding to the university.
Trump has also publicly called on the Internal Revenue Service to revoke Harvard’s tax-exempt status, weaponizing an agency intended to enforce tax law impartially.
Last week, we sued the IRS, Treasury, and Education Department for records related to President Trump’s unprecedented political interference at Harvard University.

It’s easy to become numb to Trump’s corruption and disregard for American democracy as he continuously abuses his office to enrich himself, weaponizes government agencies to silence dissent, and rewards his cronies. But the stakes could not be higher. If the incentives to acquiesce to Trump grow while the risks of standing up to him heighten, it will be harder and harder to stop Trump’s authoritarian agenda.

On the Records

The Religious and Far-Right Incursion in Florida’s Schools

The Trump administration has taken aim at public education. But as the New York Times and our recent report notes, the far-right and religious incursion into public schools has been happening at the state level for years — especially in Florida. Here’s some of what we’ve uncovered about the harmful effects of Gov. DeSantis’ education policies.

In 2022, Florida adopted a slew of laws upending public education by mandating reviews of books for prohibited content, allowing parents greater ability to challenge classroom lessons, and barring instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity for certain grade levels. These laws have left educators and others uncertain and confused, unleashing a chilling effect that has made teachers’ jobs harder and limited what children can learn.
Math textbook publishers were so unsure about how to comply with these laws that some removed math stories that contained references to other cultures — for example, changing a story about the global history of tea into one about an animal hospital. A passage about Tropical Storm Pakhar — a 2017 storm that impacted southern China, southeast Asia, and the Philippines — was replaced with a passage about invasive species in the Chesapeake Bay.
The Florida Association of District School Superintendents’ 2023 Legislative Summary raised concerns about HB 1069, the law outlining a process for removing books from schools and limiting classroom education on sexual orientation and gender identity. Implementation of the law was “incredibly time and resource-intensive” and “took educators away from teaching and learning.” Because the law did “little to put guardrails in place” on what could be considered objectionable material, “the mere reference to an LGBTQ person, or some sexual activity without any description of it, is challenged for including inappropriate sexual content.”
We also obtained records that contain internal comments from the state ed department’s review of the AP African American Studies course, which Florida rejected in 2023 for teaching a supposedly “political agenda.” The review included objections to lessons about slavery and racial disparities that reviewers claimed were lacking in “opposing viewpoints.” Reviewers sought to minimize the horrors and effects of slavery, including by calling for the inclusion of more than “one side of this issue.”
These records, as well as the impact of similar laws in other states, are detailed in our report on the far-right attack on public education. Read more here.

Newsletter: Pardons for Trump’s Friends, Punishment for His Foes

On the Records

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