President Biden on Thursday commuted the prison sentence of Michael Conahan, a former judge who pleaded guilty to sending juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers in exchange for $2.1 million in kickbacks.
The 72-year-old judge pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy charges in 2011 and was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for the “Kids-for-Cash” scheme.
He has been in home confinement in Florida under federal supervision since June 2020, when he requested a “compassionate release” because of the Covid-19 pandemic, arguing he was “in grave danger of not only contracting the virus, but of dying from the virus.”
Conahan, whose commutation was first reported by the Citizens’ Voice, was one of 1,499 commutations Biden granted this week. Biden, who also issued 49 pardons, far exceeded the previous single-day record for acts of clemency, which was held by former President Barack Obama, who issued 330 acts of clemency in a single day before he left office in 2017.
“The nearly 1,500 individuals who received commutations today have been serving their sentences at home for at least one year under the COVID-era CARES Act,” the White House said in a statement. “These Americans have been reunited with their families and shown their commitment to rehabilitation by securing employment and advancing their education.”
Former attorney Robert Powell paid $770,000 to Conahan and former judge Mark Ciavarella Jr. to reward the judges for sending juvenile defendants to two private, for-profit detention centers Powell partly owned, oftentimes with sentences that were incongruent with the juveniles’ crimes.
Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in prison and is scheduled to be released in 2034.
Powell served an 18-month prison sentence in connection with the scheme after pleading guilty to felony counts of failing to report a felony and being an accessory to a conspiracy. He also agreed to pay the juvenile defendants affected by the scheme more than $6 million in a settlement reached in 2015.
Real estate developer Robert Mericle paid another $2.1 million to the judges. He served one year in federal prison on charges related to failing to disclose to investigators and a grand jury that he knew the judges were defrauding the government by failing to report the money on their taxes.
A mother whose son died by suicide while serving time in the juvenile detention under the scheme called Biden’s decision “deeply painful.”
“I am shocked and I am hurt,” Sandy Fonzo said in a statement. “Conahan‘s actions destroyed families, including mine, and my son‘s death is a tragic reminder of the consequences of his abuse of power. This pardon feels like an injustice for all of us who still suffer. Right now I am processing and doing the best I can to cope with the pain that this has brought back.”
Others who had their sentences commuted on Thursday included Rita Crundwell and Eric Bloom, whom the the Chicago Tribune called “two of the Chicago area’s most notorious fraudsters.” Crundwell, 71, the former comptroller of Dixon, Ill., embezzled nearly $54 million from the town and pleaded guilty in 2012. Bloom, 59, the one-time head of a management firm, was convicted in 2012 of defrauding investors of more than $665 million, according to the paper.
Reprinted with permission from The National Review by Brittany Bernstein.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
On the bright side, it frees up prison space for Biden and Clinton.
Do you smell that? It’s the stench of Biden crime family rot and corruption, and this cesspool inhabitant still has plenty of time to insult We The People and sabotage DJT’s efforts to MAGA before Inauguration Day. Absolutely infuriating.
The most corrupt president ever. He will go down as being the most corrupt and crooked president ever in the history of our Republic! And it seems like it never stops coming. The families that have been destroyed by this corrupt president is heartbreaking. Every dog has its day, Biden will sooner or later meet his maker and have to explain himself. Justice will be served then.
This jerk should be stopped. He is making a total mockery of our judicial system. He should be in jail until he dies. And so should most of the Dems and some of the Republicans for letting him get away with this.
No one understands kickbacks as well as Old Joe.
Who’s really pulling the pardon strings? Joe can’t string two sentences together without a teleprompter.
He’s one of the most crooked, fearless, and ignorant idiots I know of.
Can he not be stopped ?
But they will roast Trump over an open fire for separating families at the border…..
Crundwell, 71, the former comptroller of Dixon, Ill., embezzled nearly $54 million from the town and pleaded guilty in 2012. Bloom, 59, the one-time head of a management firm, was convicted in 2012 of defrauding investors of more than $665 million, according to the paper.
From Illinois . . . This might have been a favor for Obama. Living in Illinois this state has been corrupt since I’ve been a kid.
So let me get this straight.
We have a judge taking payments from a detention facility co-owner, for making detention facility decisions favorable to said co-owner of the detention facilities.
And he was pardoned by the Joe Biden, who’s family has been paid millions by foreign interests/governments for access to, and favorable policies decisions from Joe Biden.
No wonder Joe empathized with this judge.
I wonder how much money the Biden Family Crime Syndicate was paid for these pardons?
All buyden$ pardons will be overturned because he is an illegitimate illegal president!
He also pardoned a former city treasurer who embezzled more than $50 million from the city government of Dixon Illinois. Can January 20 please hurry up and get here?
He is pardoning all of the real criminals, why doesn’t he just open the floodgates and pardon everyone. Then close the prisons make sure everyone has a gun and let the BLOODBATH begin.
Jackass Joe is going to commute as many as he can before he leaves the oval office. Maybe one of them will end up robbing his house or some other crime they’re in for.
What else could we expect from a non-legitimately elected “president” and a bunch of his cronies that (by definition) habitually lie a lot ? Been there, done that… but just wanting to “turn the page” more than ever now.
CROOKED IS AS CROOKED DOES.
i can’t wait ’til pam bondi is approved. perhaps she’ll look into the pay for freedom that the biden family cartel is receiving and from whence is coming from and from whom. she and james comer should DEMAND from the banks any accounts that has any of the biden crime syndicate names on them. but alas nothing will happen. i would advise everyone to buy into whitewash before prices rise at its sudden consumption for the bidens.nw
BIDEN IS NOT FINISHING UP YET with all he plans to do to finish his work DESTROYING AMERICA
You live in the robber’s den you must behave accordingly.
Biden is pardoning lowlifes just like himself and Hunter. A judge making money by sending kids to prison? A woman who embezzled $53 million from Dixon, IL? A child pornographer? SCUM!!! Spawn of the devil.
Biden has commutated or pardoned over 8,000 individuals. And has let people out of prison for petty crimes over the past 4 years. There are more criminals roaming the streets in America than there are inmates locked up. Ordinary citizens are being made enemy of the state. Migrants are heralded as heroes. And we the American people are paying for them, with our taxes. And the wrath people have endured when these criminals entered their homes, killed and raped them. And Biden is silent about it all. I heard the police chief from Aurora Colorado say today. “I called the White House on September 23 about the criminal elements in our city and I was told the White House was only concerned about getting them across the border”. Denver has spent 357 million dollars on housing these migrants and the mayor of Denver won’t allow the federal govt to deport them. While a majority of Colorado residents wants them gone. The people in Denver and elsewhere are living in fear every day. When will an attack happened here. All this was done to get the dems elected again to keep the power. Except the people saw it different and voted them out in a landslide. Only the dems ignore that and still act like they won and are still in power. Sorry but there is a new sheriff in town and he has the backing of 66% of the people. Dems your dictatorship and destructive governing is over. There is no joy in Mudville for you.
ALL for the Cartels
Why on earth do we even allow presidents to pardon criminals? It surely was someone in the Democrat Party that thought up this hare-brained idea. You can bet that it was a Democrat president who had a relative or billionaire pal who instigated this ridiculous rule. As for evil to the core, hateful and disgusting Joe, it is time someone locked him back in his basement never to be seen again. It is shameful that the world had to bear the horrific things he did while in office. Good riddance to him and his comrades!! Thousands have died or endured deep suffering because of him.
Well, DUH! The judge was only taking some kickbacks! Ol’ 10%er couldn’t possibly see how someone should be punished for that!
God not Covid is what this evil person should fear.
Wonder how much he’s getting for all the commutations and pardons? It’s like a list put before him and he just signs not even knowing what it’s all about. So now all those people can once again vote?
Biden loves crooked judges.
This is what corrupt politicians do. They must make good on their political favors to political friends.
Shameful! Who is it that is putting these names forward? And how much are THEY getting paid to do so? Hope all the records aren’t being shredded.
Birds of a feather stick together. The Bidens are corrupt, so are their acquaintance.
The slime of humanity pardons the slime of humanity. I am somewhat relieved that at least these people were nonviolent offenders but not by much.
Pam Bondi will have a field day with these crooks & the wake of their crimes . Can’t wait for Judge Mershon to be looked into also . He’s NUTS . Nancy Pelosi for insider trading , least of all .
His sorry ass can’t be ejected from the Whitehouse soon enough!
These companies are probably all branches of the Biden money-laundering LLC system…
The question keeps coming up: What can be done about this.
I am reminded of the 1990’2 Clinton era when police officers and others needing firearms for their employment, but who had been convicted of domestic abuse, were required to give up their firearms backdating 25 years. To me that looks like a violation of ex post facto legislation. But that’s the way it went.
So, when there is obvious and outrageous imbalanced clemency being doled out, why not introduce another ex post facto law that undoes at least some of what Joe is doing right now? Fair is fair, right?
The judge and the others must be good donors for the democrat party and biden.
If you are a disgusting S.O.B. and you don’t let the world know it, what is the point?