Donald Trump has said illegal immigration is one of the greatest threats to our national security. Yet he has issued his first commutation to Sholom Rubashkin, who ran an Iowa meatpacking plant on the cheap by hiring hundreds of undocumented workers:
Rubashkin, a 57-year-old father of 10 children, oversaw operations at Agriprocessors, a large kosher meatpacking plant owned by his father in the northern Iowa town of Postville. The plant was raided by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in May 2008, leading to the arrests of nearly 400 Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants who were living and working in the country without authorization [Luke Nozicka, “President Trump Commutes Sentence of Sholom Rubashkin, Ex-Iowa Slaughterhouse Executive,” Des Moines Register, 2017.12.20].
The feds dropped immigration charges, lost on child labor charges, but secured Rubashkin’s conviction on bank fraud fraud charges:
Mr. Rubashkin was convicted in November in a federal trial of 86 counts of financial fraud for his mishandling of a revolving loan from First Bank Business Capital of St. Louis, among other loans. After that conviction, prosecutors dismissed separate federal immigration charges.
Judge Reade noted that Mr. Rubashkin had misled the bank repeatedly about the finances of Agriprocessors, ordering employees to create fake invoices and moving cash secretly among different accounts, including some designated for religious purposes. The maneuvers caused a loss to the bank of $26 million, the judge found.
In one episode, Judge Reade wrote, Mr. Rubashkin lent $4,500 to illegal immigrants working in the plant so they could buy new fake identity documents, after immigration authorities had questioned the validity of their original hiring documents [Julia Preston, “27-Year Sentence for Plant Manager,” New York Times, 2010.06.21].
President Barack Obama rejected calls for clemency, and in January a federal judge said Rubashkin’s attorneys were “embellishing” their claims of misconduct by prosecutors. But the Trump White House is siding with numerous judges and politicos who say Rubashkin got a raw deal:
The President’s review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case and commutation decision were based on expressions of support from Members of Congress and a broad cross-section of the legal community. A bipartisan group of more than 100 former high-ranking and distinguished Department of Justice (DOJ) officials, prosecutors, judges, and legal scholars have expressed concerns about the evidentiary proceedings in Mr. Rubashkin’s case and the severity of his sentence. Additionally, more than 30 current Members of Congress have written letters expressing support for review of Mr. Rubashkin’s case [White House, press release, 2017.12.20].
The White House says Nancy Pelosi and several other members of Congress support leniency for Rubashkin. The only Iowa member of Congress supporting this commutation is Rep. Steve King, a passionate opponent of employers’ exploitation of undocumented workers.
Rubashkin gets out of prison after serving eight years of his 27-year sentence. He still has to pay restitution and submit to some supervision after release.
I guess I don’t really have a problem with this commutation. It’s not a pardon. This guy served 8 years in prison for a financial crime. And someone who owes significant restitution is more likely to be able to pay it when they are out of prison.
Rubashkin, 57, was sentenced in June 2010 to 27 years — 324 months in prison, and five years of supervised release. Although lawyers continue to battle on his behalf, his case was upheld by an appeals court and refused by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In addition to federal charges, Rubashkin also faced state charges on child labor law violations. The trial began May 2010 in Waterloo, with Rubashkin facing an indictment on 83 counts (down from the original charge of more than 9,000).
In June 2010, days before Rubashkin’s federal sentencing, he was found not guilty of the charges. But to be clear, no one argued that minors weren’t present in the plant. Rubashkin’s defense was that he didn’t know, and, since the federal immigration case had already been dismissed, evidence from that case — which included identification documents found in the plant — was not admitted.
An agreement was later reached between the state and new plant owners. A guilty plea to all 83 counts of child labor law violations was entered by the business and its human resources manager, but Rubashkin was not personally held accountable.
This is not a nice person!
No, Mike, it sounds like he’s a real POS. But he also owes a lot of money in restitution. I hope he is able to whittle that down. He may find on the outside that he misses the safety of federal prison.
This was a present for Nathanjehu of Israel. He will probably be whisked away to Israel and never have to pay restitution, IMHO.
I think you nailed it mfi, these dude will take himself and his 10 kids on a visit to the homeland, pay his tithe, by a boatload of sunscreen and that will be the last we shall hear of it.
Yeah, whittle down that restitution so he can get back to donating to Republicans. I hear they’re hurting for cash….
Cory,
Republicans finally started getting the wall street money last year. Before that, the Democrats were getting it.
Don’t worry, you still have your hollywood money.
I see a Democrat broke the law yesterday and tried bribing Senators.
Typical Trump, everything for big business. Do not fraud the bank but let him cheat the workers. OH, but that was done before Trump. Now he lets cheating big business people get by with ALL their sins.
This case demonstrates why republicans only want to talk about immigration reform and in reality don’t want to change things.
There is Trump Mara-Largo and large republican held corporations that make their profits off of immigrants.
Even law enforcement turn their backs and the federal government fails to enforce existing immigration laws, it’s called profit for the already wealthy.
It isn’t that often that we hear that corporations are investigated and found guilty for hiring immigrants.
Sholom Rubashkin paid good protection money to the republican party and they failed to protect him.
Once Trump saw that Rubashkin was a major financial contributor to the republican party arrangements were made for a pardon.
Jason, Trump promised during the campaign to do away with the Hedge Fund managers loophole that is part of the special interest swamp in DC. Turns out Trump broke that promise in the Republican tax bill so that he could keep the big money flowing to the Republican party from the swamp-thing donors. Keep up the good work on filling the swamp!
So cantaloupe calves King supports the master of illegal immigrants and illegal workers.
Hhumm.
https://takingnote.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/no-comment-necessary-drug-mules/
Exactly, John. King attacks the minorities who make up the population of undocumented workers but begs for leniency for one of the rich employers who demanded and exploited their labor.
Wingnuts bribed Murkowski, Collins and Corker bigly. Corker is just now filing late financial reports on his real estate dealings which were given a generous boost to buy his vote.
Cory,
Do you support people breaking the law or not?
Jason, I do not support breaking the law. I remain puzzled as to why Trump would commute the sentence of someone who apparently broke one of the laws that Trump said is most central to our national security.