Biden's clemency for convicted fraudsters pissing people off: "Slap in the face"

Alleged President Joe Biden made history last week by being the first president to give clemency to over 1,500 prisoners who he never met nor knew anything about their crimes. But at least he was the first, while Kamala never made it to first elected vice president or president.

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However, the move was met with fierce backlash from critics pointing out various names on the clemency list included individuals who cost taxpayers tens of millions of dollars through their fraudulent actions.

Among those included in what the Biden White House has described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president were Rita Crundwell and Paul M. Daugerdas. Crundwell, once the comptroller in Dixon, Illinois, was sentenced to nearly 20 years in prison for embezzling almost $54 million from the town, which is famous for being the childhood home of Ronald Reagan.

Also on the list was Paul M. Daugerdas, a former New York law partner, who got a 15-year sentence for his part in a massive tax fraud scheme that prosecutors called one of the biggest criminal tax fraud cases in U.S. history. Another individual, Toyosi Alatishe, was convicted for abusing his role as a caretaker for patients with severe mental and physical disabilities by fraudulently using their personal information to file tax returns.

Reacting to the clemency granted to Crundwell, Republican Illinois state Senator Andrew Chesney labeled the decision "nothing short of a slap in the face to the people of Dixon."

"Her crimes did not only affect the taxpayers of Dixon, but they also had a rippling effect across the region and state, as communities became subject to stricter, more tedious regulations," Chesney said in a statement after Crundwell’s sentence was commuted. "First, it was the pardoning of his son, and now Biden is apparently extending clemency to anyone with political connections, including corrupt government employees. It's sickening."

Illinois Republican Rep. Darin LaHood supported Chesney's comments, calling the commutation a "slap in the face" to those affected by Crundwell's crimes, adding that "while many families in Dixon were living paycheck to paycheck, [Crundwell] took advantage of their trust in government and used her access to live an unearned life of luxury."

In addition to those who defrauded public funds, many of Biden's commutations went to white-collar criminals accused of scamming their clients out of millions. One notable case was that of Michael Conahan, a former judge who handed out severe punishments to young people in return for $2.8 million in bribes in the infamous "kids for cash" scandal.

"I want to see [Conahan's] name removed because that's just… another slap in the face, another injustice, on top of all of the grief that everybody in this community has already endured," said Sandy Fonzo, whose son Edward took his own life after spending eight months in juvenile detention for underage drinking.

The administration explained that these sentence commutations were for inmates who were under home confinement during the COVID-19 crisis and had "successfully reintegrated into their families and communities." The criteria included ensuring the primary or previous offense was not violent, a sex crime, or related to terrorism; confirming a low risk of re-offending; and checking that the individual was not involved in violent or gang activities while in prison. All these individuals were on good behavior, and the decisions were not made on a case-by-case basis.

For comparison, between 2017 and 2021, former President Trump issued only 143 pardons and 93 commutations, which was just 2% of the clemency requests his administration received, according to Justice Department data.

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So Biden pardoned and gave clemency to people whose cases he never checked out

Joe Biden and Meera Sachdiva

It's one thing to 'shoot from the hip,'  but it's a totally different thing to shoot from the hip while wearing a blindfold and falling up a flight of stairs.

In one pardon granted by the alleged President, a "Massachusetts woman on Biden’s clemency list was sentenced for ‘lethal’ fentanyl trafficking conspiracy," according to the Boston Herald. This woman led a "large-scale criminal enterprise that reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits and caused untold misery."

"Former Dixon Comptroller Rita Crundwell stole $53 million from the little town, a crime so notorious that a documentary was made -- highlighting that she perpetrated the largest case of municipal fraud in American history," Politico reported.

Crundwell, the Dixon, Illinois comptroller who stole the money to fund a lavish lifestyle of expensive homes, dream vacations, and some serious bling, was sentenced to 20 years. She served less than half that time.

“With my deteriorating health condition and the danger of the Covid 19 pandemic, I feel like I have been given a death sentence,” she wrote to the judge, asking to be released during the pandemic.

Perhaps most incredibly, the "Cash for Kids" POS judge, Mark Claravella, in Pennsylvania who wrongly sent dozens of minors to a for-profit prison and got kickbacks for it, was released without any examination of the facts of his case. This garbage human being should be thrown in jail for years after committing such a crime in these kids.

"The White House commuted the sentence of the judge at the center of a notorious 'kids-for-cash' scandal without considering the specifics of his case, beyond whether it fit into a broad set of criteria," reports Politico. We can assume that all of the 1500 cases of these prisoners were also examined just as thoroughly.

Perhaps one of the worst cases Biden gave clemency to was with Meera Sachdeva, a Mississippi doctor who was sentenced to 20 years in the slammer in 2012. She defrauded Medicare and was required to pay $8,200,000 to her former cancer facility where she provided cancer patients with diluted chemotherapy drugs and old needles. One such patient claimed to have gotten HIV from a needle used by her clinic.

While it seems obvious no examinations of the criminal cases were actually reviewed, the White House had the temerity to say that those who received clemency had demonstrated rehabilitation and “a strong commitment to making their communities safer.” In addition to commuting sentences for nearly 1,500 individuals on home confinement, Biden pardoned 39 people convicted of non-violent offenses.

“Together, these actions build on the President’s record of criminal justice reform to help reunite families, strengthen communities, and reintegrate individuals back into society,” the White House said in its announcement. “The President has issued more sentence commutations at this point in his presidency than any of his recent predecessors at the same point in their first terms.”

Among those receiving clemency was Daniel Fillerup, an Alabama doctor sentenced to 10 years in prison for illegally distributing fentanyl which led to a fatal overdose. The Department of Justice stated that Fillerup “directly contributed to the opioid epidemic.” Another recipient was Wendy Hechtman, who was serving 15 years for running a drug operation connected to a spike in overdose deaths in Nebraska in 2017.

Despite the controversial backgrounds of some recipients, the White House praised President Biden's clemency decisions, emphasizing his dedication to criminal justice reform. They also mentioned that more such actions are expected before Biden's term ends.

"While today’s announcement marks important progress, there is more to come. President Biden will continue to review clemency petitions and deliver criminal justice reform in a manner that advances equity and justice, promotes public safety, supports rehabilitation and reentry, and provides meaningful second chances,” the White House concluded in its announcement.

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