The swamp lives on.

quote:

President Donald Trump, in one of his final acts of office, released current and former members of his administration from the terms of their ethics pledge, which included a five-year ban on lobbying their former agencies.

The ethics pledge was outlined in one of Trump’s first executive orders, signed on Jan. 28, 2017, as part of his campaign pledge to “drain the swamp.” It required Trump’s political appointees to agree to the lobbying ban, as well as pledge not to undertake work that would require them to register as a “foreign agent” after leaving government. Trump’s order authorized the attorney general to investigate any breaches of the ethics pledge and to pursue civil suits if necessary.

Trump signed the one-page revocation of the order on Tuesday, and it was released by the White House shortly after 1 a.m. Wednesday, hours before his term ends.

The new order states: “Employees and former employees subject to the commitments in Executive Order 13770 will not be subject to those commitments after noon January 20, 2021.”

President Bill Clinton signed a similar order with weeks left on his final term, allowing former aides to go directly into lobbying after leaving his administration.

https://apnews.com/article/don...3899eadd18b5776f6095

As revolting as all the pardons are (very), I find myself far more horrified by Trump's many last minute executions.

Still find it hard to believe a man could take pleasure in exploiting his tremendous power, by killing over a dozen (federal) capital offenders while he could.

Men (one woman - was her order finally commuted?) who while their guilt for ghastly crimes was undeniable, had waited for decades in hopes their death sentences would be commuted.

That would have been on the basis of arguably diminished or inapplicable responsibility, unfair application of the death penalty owing to their role in the crime, and/or transformation while incarcerated. It's to be recalled that Trump had argued for reinstatement of the death penalty in New York in the case of "the Central Park jogger" - where the five accused were later found innocent.

One of the most appalling was the applied death sentence of Corey Johnson, a man who was severely retarded - no one denied that. He didn't even have a clue that he was at risk of being executed or even (apparently) what a death sentence meant. Another violation - here, of the 14th amendment providing for "equal protection under the law".

What a sick, deeply depraved way of Trump's showing what a big shot he was, how "strong"! The last six were killed after he lost the election. One more way of punishing the world for the great injustice visited on him! I feel so disgusted imagining the pleasure Trump must have taken in waving his sceptre, thumbs down, over these hapless victims of his ire.

Why else would he have sought this opportunity to kill as many people as possible at the last minute of his reign of terror? There had been no federal death penalty enacted in 17 years and new applications had been abolished. Covid-17 itself played a role in the injustice of the executions. Lawyers were unable to defend them adequately because of transportation limitations, and the two actively ill with Covid when they were executed (by lethal injection), were reported to be subject to extreme torture . The interaction of the drugs with their damaged lungs meant they would experience terrifying suffocation/drowning as their lungs slowly filled with fluid.

That would make their deaths violations of the 8th amendment "against cruel and unusual punishment". Everybody gets their kicks in different ways, I guess.