Trump commutes sentence of convicted fraudster who aided GOP effort to impeach Biden

 

President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of a man who aided Republican efforts to impeach former President Joe Biden while serving a prison sentence of over 14 years for defrauding Native Americans and other investors.

A notice of clemency for Jason Galanis was released Monday by the Department of Justice, though the president signed the order Friday without a public announcement.

Galanis is the second associate of Hunter Biden who testified in the Republican impeachment inquiry to receive clemency in recent days from Trump, who has repeatedly used his executive power to reward allies or people he feels were unjustly treated by federal law enforcement.

The White House did not explain the rationale for granting clemency to Galanis, who was sentenced in August 2017 in federal court in New York to 14 years and five months in prison for his role in a bond scheme that defrauded the Oglala Sioux tribe and pension fund investors out of tens of millions of dollars.

“He and his codefendants engaged in market manipulation and the defrauding of shareholders, and they stole a large portion of the proceeds of tribal bonds that were intended to fund economic development projects,” Audrey Strauss, then-acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said in a statement after the sentencing. “Now Jason Galanis has been sentenced to a lengthy prison term that reflects the magnitude and pervasiveness of his crimes.”

The judge ordered Galanis to forfeit about $80 million in proceeds and pay an equal amount in restitution.

Trump’s clemency order absolves him of the financial penalties as well as having to serve the remainder of his prison time.

Trump last week pardoned Devon Archer, who was sentenced to a one-year prison term as part of the same fraud scheme involving Galanis and also went on to testify to the impeachment inquiry.

Galanis, who has said he unsuccessfully sought a pardon in Trump’s first term, testified from prison to the House impeachment inquiry led by Rep. James Comer against President Biden. He told lawmakers that he brought Hunter Biden into his business to take advantage of the son’s political connections.