Reality TV stars. Former lawmakers. A sheriff. A nursing home executive. A drug kingpin.What do they have in common?They are among the Americans convicted of crimes who have received pardons from President Donald Trump since he took office in January.And while US presidents have doled out questionable pardons in the past, Trump is doing so “in a bigger, more aggressive way with sort of no sense of shame,” said Kermit Roosevelt, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania.”The pardon power has always been a little bit problematic because it’s this completely unconstrained power that the president has,” Roosevelt told AFP.”Most presidents have issued at least some pardons where people look at them and they say: ‘This seems to be self-serving’ or ‘This seems to be corrupt in some way.'”But Trump is doling out pardons “that look like they’re almost quid pro quo for financial donations,” Roosevelt said.Among those receiving a pardon was Paul Walczak, a nursing home executive convicted of tax crimes and whose mother attended a $1-million-per-plate fund-raising dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in April.Other beneficiaries of Trump pardons include reality TV stars Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were serving lengthy prison sentences for bank fraud and tax evasion.Their daughter, Savannah, is a prominent Trump supporter and gave a speech at last year’s Republican National Convention.More than half a dozen former Republican lawmakers convicted of various crimes have also received pardons along with a Virginia sheriff sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking $75,000 in bribes.On his first day in office, Trump pardoned more than 1,500 supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 as they sought to prevent congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.The next day, Trump pardoned Ross Ulbricht, who had been serving a life sentence for running the “Silk Road” online marketplace that facilitated millions of dollars of drug sales.- ‘Just another deal’ -Barbara McQuade, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at the University of Michigan, said Trump is not the first president to be accused of “allowing improper factors to influence their pardon decisions.”Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton’s pardon of a commodities trader whose wife was a major Democratic donor and Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter, and other family members all drew some criticism.”(But) Trump is in a class by himself in both scope and shamelessness,” McQuade said in a Bloomberg opinion column. “To him, pardons are just another deal.”As long as a defendant can provide something of value in return, no crime seems too serious,” she said.Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, in a letter to Ed Martin, Trump’s pardon attorney at the Justice Department, asked what criteria are being used to recommend pardons.”It at least appears that you are using the Office of the Pardon Attorney to dole out pardons as favors to the President’s loyal political followers and most generous donors,” Raskin wrote.Martin for his part has made no secret of the partisan nature of the pardons recommended by his office.”No MAGA left behind,” Martin said on X after the pardon of the bribe-taking Virginia sheriff, a reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.Lee Kovarsky, a University of Texas law professor, said Trump’s “pardon spree” opens up a “menacing new frontier of presidential power” that he calls “patronage pardoning.”By reducing the penalty for misconduct, Trump is making a “public commitment to protect and reward loyalism, however criminal,” Kovarsky said in a New York Times opinion piece.  

Nadya Tolokonnikova, the co-founder of the feminist art collective Pussy Riot, is back in a prison cell — but this time, she has gone willingly.At the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, the Russian activist is staging “Police State” — a two-week piece of performance art aimed at raising awareness about the dangers of authoritarianism and oppression.Tolokonnikova — who spent nearly two years in a Russian penal colony for performing a protest song against Vladimir Putin in a Moscow church in 2012 — knows a bit about the topic.Through the installation, which opened Thursday and runs through June 14, she says she hopes to teach visitors about what she believes to be the advent of a new means of control — technology.While she is in the mock cell, during all museum opening hours, she will eat, use the toilet, sew clothes as she once did in her real cell and create “soundscapes.” Visitors can observe her through holes in the cell or on security camera footage. “People don’t treat authoritarianism seriously,” Tolokonnikova told AFP.Seated in a makeshift Russian prison cell, wearing a green tracksuit, the 35-year-old activist says in several countries, the concept of a “police state” is expanding.”As someone who lived under authoritarian rule for over 25 years, I know how real it is and how it starts, step by step, on the arrest of one person. You think, ‘Well, it’s not about me’,” she explained.”And then next thing we know, the entire country is under the military boot.”- ‘We all have to contribute’ -For Tolokonnikova, US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January has sparked an “erosion of the system of checks and balances,” which she deemed “very dangerous.”She says the artistic community, and society in general, should do more to counter governmental abuses of power, wherever they may occur, and stop “outsourcing politics and political action.””I feel like it’s as if there is someone else who’s going to save us from everything. That’s not what works really. We all have to contribute.”Some who visited the installation said they agreed with Tolokonnikova that society had become too passive.”I feel like Americans don’t want to believe that we could be in danger of losing our freedoms,” said Jimmie Akin, a graphic designer who said she was worried about the policy changes since Trump took office.”People need to wake up.”- Sewing machine and Navalny -For 29-year-old Hannah Tyler, “Police State” was a bit of a shock to the system.”We’re living in a country where we aren’t facing the same extreme oppression that she did in Russia, but getting close to it. I felt inspired to take more action than I have been,” Tyler said.Tolokonnikova’s installation has some symbolic features.She has books and artworks made by Russian, US and Belarusian prisoners, as well as a drawing by the brother of late Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. A sewing machine recalls the manual labor of her incarceration. Words of protest are carved into the walls.For Alex Sloane, the museum’s associate curator, the installation shows how “increased surveillance and government overreach” are becoming more and more widespread, and “freedoms are at risk.””We should do all that we can to make sure” that such circumstances are kept at bay, Sloane said.

Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the streets of Los Angeles on Saturday in what the White House said was an effort to quell “lawlessness” after sometimes-violent protests erupted over immigration enforcement raids.The US president took federal control of California’s state military to push soldiers into the country’s second-biggest city, where they could face off against demonstrators. It is a rare move that Governor Gavin Newsom said was “purposefully inflammatory.”The development came after two days of confrontations that had seen federal agents shoot flash-bang grenades and tear gas towards crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population.Footage showed a car that had been set alight at a busy intersection, while in video circulating on social media a man in a motorbike helmet can be seen throwing rocks at speeding federal vehicles.In other scenes, demonstrators threw fireworks at lines of local law enforcement who had been called in to try to keep the peace.”President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, blaming what she called California’s “feckless” Democratic leaders.”The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs.”- ‘Purposefully inflammatory’The National Guard — a reserve military — is frequently used in natural disasters, like in the aftermath of the LA fires, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local politicians.That was not the case Saturday.Newsom, a frequent foil for Trump and a long-time foe of the Republican, took to social media to decry Saturday’s White House order.”That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.”The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle. Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.”US Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli said guardsmen would be in place “within the next 24 hours.”Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to ramp up tensions further, warning that nearby regular military forces could get involved.”If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” he wrote on social media.Law professor Jessica Levinson said Hegseth’s intervention appeared symbolic because of the general legal restriction on the use of the US military as a domestic policing force in the absence of an insurrection.”At this moment, it’s not using the Insurrection Act,” she said, rather Trump was relying on what is known as Title 10.”The National Guard will be able to do (no) more than provide logistical (and) personnel support.”- Arrests -Since taking office in January, Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants — who he has likened to “monsters” and “animals.”The Department for Homeland Security said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations in Los Angeles this week had resulted in the arrest of “118 aliens, including five gang members.”Saturday’s standoff took place in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrators converged on a reported federal facility, which the local mayor said was being used as a staging post by agents.On Friday, masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs.Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass acknowledged that some city residents were “feeling fear” following the federal immigration enforcement actions.”Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable,” she said on X.FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said multiple arrests had been made following Friday’s clashes.”You bring chaos, and we’ll bring handcuffs. Law and order will prevail,” he said on X.On Saturday, amid chants for ICE agents to get out, some protesters waved Mexican flags while others set a US flag on fire, the Los Angeles Times reported.Cement blocks and overturned shopping carts served as crude roadblocks.The White House has taken a hard line against the protests, with deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calling them “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”