#michael grimm

Trump Weird News-OK, Your Out (Plus Dozen Other Congressmen) !!!

Gabe Fleisher at Wake Up To Politics:

At first blush, there isn’t much that separates Robert Henry Harshbarger from any other white-collar ex-convict. He’s a former pharmacist who was charged with health care fraud in 2012, ultimately pleading guilty to distributing a drug for kidney dialysis patients that he claimed was an FDA-approved medication but was, in fact, a cheaper substitute from China.

According to prosecutors, over the course of five years, Harshbarger’s company received more than $875,000 from a dialysis center and more than $845,000 from programs like Medicare and Medicaid in exchange for the misrepresented drugs.

“Although there are no reports of patient harm associated with the drugs that are alleged to be misbranded in this indictment, patient health was put at risk,” the U.S. attorney said at the time. “The FDA cannot assure the safety and effectiveness of products that are not FDA-approved and come from unknown sources and foreign locations or that may not have been manufactured under proper conditions. These unknowns put patients’ health at risk because of uncertainty concerning the product’s content, purity, and source.”

Harshbarger was sentenced to two years in federal prison, which he served.

When Ted Kennedy first ran for the Senate in 1962 — at age 30, never having held elected office, seeking the seat that his brother had just vacated to become president — his rival in the Democratic primary famously said from the debate stage: “If his name was Edward Moore…your candidacy would be a joke. But nobody’s laughing, because his name is not Edward Moore. It’s Edward Moore Kennedy.”

Similarly, if our ex-con here was named Robert Henry, this is probably where his story would end. But his name is Robert Henry Harshbarger, and his wife is Diana Harshbarger, a Republican congresswoman from Tennessee and a top Trump ally. Last week, Mr. Harshbarger was quietly pardoned by the president, wiping his criminal record clean. Harshbarger joins a group of roughly 1,500 people whom Trump has pardoned since returning to office about 10 months ago. The list is largely made up of January 6th rioters, but it also includes a trail runner, two shark divers, five crypto executives, an alleged Chinese agent, and the operator of an online black market known as a haven for illegal drug trafficking.

And a lot of Republicans.

Throughout his second term, Trump has used his clemency powers to aid Republican politicians battling criminal charges at all levels, from former city council members and county sheriffs to former state representatives and senators.

With his pardons or commutations of former Reps. George Santos (R-NY) and Michael Grimm (R-NY) this term — and former Reps. Chris Collins (R-NY), Duncan Hunter (R-CA), Steve Stockman (R-TX), Rick Renzi (R-AZ), Mark Siljander (R-MI), Robin Hayes (R-NC), and Duke Cunningham (R-CA) last term — Trump has granted clemency to almost every Republican House member to have been federally convicted of a felony this century.

Nine days after returning to office, Trump’s Justice Department also moved to end the case against another convicted former congressman, ex-Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-NE), despite the fact that Fortenberry had already been convicted for lying to the FBI about a foreign campaign contribution. Two days after that, federal prosecutors withdrew from the criminal investigation of Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN), a top Trump ally who was being probed for potential fraud. [...]

Other pardons have been to benefit individuals in Trump’s broader ideological coalition, like an Army officer who disobeyed Covid safety measures, two D.C. police officers convicted of murder and a subsequent cover-up, and 24 pro-life activists convicted of forcibly entering and blocking access to abortion clinics. Devon Archer and Jason Galanis were convicted of defrauding a Native American tribe and pension fund investors out of tens of millions of dollars, but were pardoned after they testified in the House Republican investigation of Hunter Biden. (Both were former associates of the ex-First Son.)

[...] “For my friends, everything. For my enemies, the law,” the Peruvian president Óscar Benavides is claimed to have said in the 20th century. Trump railed against a “two-tiered system of justice” during his 2024 campaign, but he seems to be living by Benavides’ philosophy now.

This P.O.S. former GOP Rep, former Marine, retired FBI, was thrown from his horse playing polo and broke his back September 2024.

He's got the nerve to set up a GoFundMe and beg money.

Maybe he should sign up for Obamacare, and while he's at it, see if the VA can do anything. Maybe start the paperwork for Medicaid / Medicare.

Here's my concept of #ThoughtsAndPrayers. I'm sure that'll fix him right up.

Michael Grimm & Vanea C.

2. qualifier for the German Jumping Derby

Hamburger Derby 2019

Gideon Taaffe at MMFA:

After former President Donald Trump survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally, right-wing media have claimed that Democrats and others should tone down their supposedly inflaming rhetoric and President Joe Biden should pardon Trump. Meanwhile, right-wing media have repeatedly used overheated rhetoric when discussing Democrats, framing the 2024 election as a “political war” and “the end of the republic” if Biden wins.