Trump Guts Federal Protections for Whistleblowers
Prosecutors argued that Weinstein, who in recent years went by the name Mike Konig to hide his criminal history, collected about $35 million from dozens of investors who thought they were investing their money in Covid-19 masks, infant formula and first aid kits for Ukraine, according to the charge.
It was a crime Weinstein could never have invented if the president hadn’t released him from federal prison in 2021. At the time, Weinstein had served only eight years of a combined 24-year prison sentence for two fraud convictions: a real estate fraud in which he used a portfolio of fake real estate investments to collect $200 million from unsuspecting buyers, and another in which he duped dozens of investors to that they invested in Facebook just before the arrival of social media. the company went public (defrauding at least one investor out of $6.7 million).
For whatever reason, Trump decided that Weinstein was the one who deserved a get out of jail free card. The 51-year-old was part of a huge pardon for 143 people ” the president issued the day before he leaves office in 2021. Other beneficiaries of the unexpected clemency included former Trump adviser Steve Bannon, rapper Lil Wayne and former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who was sentenced to 28 years in prison for corruption.
