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Groton Daily Independent
Saturday, June 09, 2018 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 330 ~ 46 of 59
Trump said last week also said he’s considering commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving 14 years in prison for corruption, and pardoning celebrity lifestyle guru Martha Stewart, who served about five months on charges connected to an insider trading case. O.J. Simpson, he said in response to a reporter’s question, is not on his list.
The president has been operating outside the usual Justice Department clemency protocol, in which submitted cases are carefully considered based on their merits, and recommendations made. Instead, White House officials say, Trump has focused on individual cases that have caught his attention or been brought to him by friends or celebrities. He’s been especially drawn to cases in which he feels a person’s prosecution has been politically motivated — a situation that may remind him of his own predicament at the center of the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling.
Trump insisted Friday that he was also interested in clemency for regular people and those without high-profile backers.
He said that, “it’s easier and people find it fascinating” to see him pardon the famous, but that he “would get more thrill out of pardoning people that nobody knows.”
Yet Trump’s suggestion that professional athletes help him identify cases only seemed to fuel concerns that those without star advocates will be ignored.
“Well, you know, if you think about it, that’s really -- that becomes celebrity advocates. But they know a lot of things that we’re not going to know. They’ve seen a lot of abuse and they’ve seen a lot of unfair- ness,” he said.
The idea also sparked backlash from the American Civil Liberties Union.
“President Trump has spent much of his first 18 months in office degrading NFL players who protest police brutality and racial injustice. Today, he has tried once again to change the narrative about the work of those and other activists, betraying a fundamental misunderstanding of the cause behind these protests — and using racist dog whistles to do it,” said Jeff Robinson, the group’s deputy legal director.
The players have been protesting racial injustice and the high numbers of African Americans killed by police.
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Justify ready for run at Triple Crown history in Belmont By BETH HARRIS, AP Racing Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Bob Baffert has done everything he can with Justify. Now, it’s up to the undefeated colt and some racing luck to add his name to a revered list of Triple Crown winners.
The chestnut colt with the blaze running down his face appears to have rebounded well after victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, with the most exhausting still to come. He’ll run 1 1/2 miles around Belmont’s sweeping oval Saturday with nine rivals gunning to keep history from happening.
Having failed with horses three times before American Pharoah ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought in 2015, Baffert knows how tough it can be to get it done. A combination of factors can help or hurt a horse, including a poor start, bad racing luck or jockey error.
In 2002, War Emblem nearly fell to his knees when the starting gate sprang open, and Baffert knew the ornery colt was done. He straggled home in eighth place, beaten 19 1/2 lengths by a 70-1 shot.
In 2004, Smarty Jones put away two rivals early and was ahead by four lengths in his bid for Triple Crown immortality. Then came the final furlong of the fastest Belmont since the advent of modern timing. Birdstone, a 36-1 shot, reeled in Smarty Jones, who lost by a length.
“I knew on the first turn that it wasn’t good because the way the horse was running, he was not relaxed and we still had a mile and a half to go almost,” jockey Stewart Elliott recalled recently. “I knew unless he settled it wasn’t going to work and he still almost won.”
Besides the grueling distance, the track itself can be tricky. Horses and riders aren’t used to 11/2-mile races in the U.S., where the focus is on sprinting. Some have mistakenly moved too early and gotten