In the past two months, President Donald Trump has pardoned a convicted drug trafficker, an unemployment scammer, a money launderer whom he said he is unfamiliar with and a foreign bribe recipient.
They also happened to be former Honduran President Orlando Hernández, expelled former Rep. George Santos, billionaire crypto tycoon Changpeng Zhao and Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Democratic congressman whose election could make or break the next House majority.
The pardons — and post-pardon fallout — are increasingly rankling Republican lawmakers, who are left with little recourse to rein in Trump despite him, at times, undermining their political messaging about stamping out “waste, fraud and abuse” and cracking down on foreign drug trafficking.