Nice Catch, Will

January 17, 2021

It's been sitting here the whole time pic.twitter.com/auDY1tVN1z

— Will Bunch (@Will_Bunch) May 16, 2023

Will Bunch, editor at the Philadelphia Inquirer has made a very nice catch.

It turns out that there have been reports of Guiliani was charging $2 million for "helping" with pardons from the New York Times on January 17, 2021.

The article refers to the, "Brisk market for pardons reflects the access peddling that has defined Mr. Trump’s presidency as well as his unorthodox approach to exercising unchecked presidential clemency powers."

When you have this in your article:

A onetime top adviser to the Trump campaign was paid $50,000 to help seek a pardon for John Kiriakou, a former C.I.A. officer convicted of illegally disclosing classified information, and agreed to a $50,000 bonus if the president granted it, according to a copy of an agreement.

And Mr. Kiriakou was separately told that Mr. Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani could help him secure a pardon for $2 million. Mr. Kiriakou rejected the offer, but an associate, fearing that Mr. Giuliani was illegally selling pardons, alerted the F.B.I. Mr. Giuliani challenged this characterization.

It would seem to me that after the reporters and editors saw the astonishing payments that Trump associates were demanding for pardons, they should have thought that there was something corrupt going on, and assigned someone to investigate the matter.

I am not sure why they didn't but someone at the Grey Lady should be getting a new asshole cut by the editor in chief for this.