OPINION: This article contain commentary which do not reflects the author’s opinion.
BREAKING: Donald Trump gets caught in a jaw-dropping scandal as it’s revealed that he pardoned a man who pleaded guilty to tax crimes just one month after his mother attended a $1 million a head MAGA fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago.
And it gets so much worse…
According to a new report from The New York Times, a pardon application was submitted for Paul Walczak around the time of Trump’s inauguration. The request specifically mentioned actions by his mother, Elizabeth Fago, to support Trump and the Republican Party.
The request also absurdly claimed that Walczak’s prosecution was the result of a political witch hunt. In reality, he pleaded guilty to failing to pay employment taxes and not filing individual income tax returns. He withheld a staggering $7.5 million from his workers but did not pay them to the IRS.
Like so many right-wingers (Trump included) he believes that he’s entitled to cheat the system while the rest of us dutifully pay our taxes.
Walczak was sentenced to 18 months in prison, two years of supervised release, and ordered to pay over $4 million in restitution. Now that he’s been pardoned, he will be spared that jail time and will no longer have to pay the fees. Justice has been derailed.
Some time after the pardon application was submitted, Fago attended a fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago with a ticket price of $1 million per person. Throwing all subtlety to the wind, Trump then proceeded to pardon Walczak less than three weeks later.
Fago also helped host at least three Trump campaign fundraisers and attended events at both of his inaugurations. Some reports suggest that she was connected to the right-wing smear campaign to leak the diary of Joe Biden’s daughter in 2020.
This is blatant quid pro quo and the kind of thing that would have led to any other president being impeached and removed from office. With Trump, it’s unfortunately par for the course.
