Posted on 04/26/2022 9:49:10 AM PDT by re_tail20
President Joe Biden on Tuesday pardoned Abraham Bolden, the Chicago man who was the first Black Secret Service agent to serve on a White House detail, who maintained charges against him that led to prison time were trumped up.
Bolden “has steadfastly maintained his innocence, arguing that he was targeted for prosecution in retaliation for exposing unprofessional and racist behavior within the U.S. Secret Service,” the White House said in announcing Biden’s clemency actions.
Biden pardoned three people, including Bolden and commuted the sentences of 75 other people serving long sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, who under current guidelines would be serving less time.
“Today, I am pardoning three people who have demonstrated their commitment to rehabilitation and are striving every day to give back and contribute to their communities,” Biden said in a statement to mark “Second Chance Month.”
For Bolden, 87, who served on President John F. Kennedy’s detail, the pardon was a long time coming.
Chicago Sun-Times columnist Mary Mitchell made the case for a pardon in a January column headlined “It’s long past time to finally clear first White House Black Secret Service agent’s name,”
Bolden, Mitchell noted, “chronicled his journey from a ‘first’ to a ‘disgraced’ Secret Service agent in his 2008 memoir ‘The Echo from Dealey Plaza.’”
As Mitchell wrote, “After he complained about agents drinking on the job and showing up unfit for duty and after he threatened to reveal the agency’s shortcomings in protecting the president, he was charged with bribery in a case involving a counterfeiting defendant. After being tried twice, he was convicted in 1966 and was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He served three years and nine months behind bars.”
In an April 2021 column, Mitchell noted that “an assignment that should have brought Bolden great honor...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicago.suntimes.com ...
I don’t think they have to wait until a particular time. There’s often a flurry of pardons granted at the last moments of a presidential term which gets some media attention.
Who tried to sell SS documents:-)
Black Marketeer:-)
He mentally never started his 1st term:-)
Federal law enforcement is totally out of control and capable of anything. I doubt that anything can restore their credibility.
They fired me for "acting funny".
Rodney?...
Only really for controversial pardons that might hurt their re-election chances.
;)
So why didn’t the first Black President Obama give this SS agent a pardon?
I believe President can pardon anytime during his term.
They all would have reached mandatory retirement (age 57) 25 years ago or more.
Well, that covers, Carter and Clinton.................
Nonviolent drug offenses...
The first stop for some of them after release will be their pushers. I wonder how many will be in the fentanyl death stats by the end of the first week.
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